Singapore execution: Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, hanged over plot to smuggle kilogram of hashish

Singapore has hanged a person over a hashish smuggling plot – regardless of calls from the United Nations to cease the execution.

Tangaraju Suppiah was hanged at daybreak on Wednesday after being discovered responsible of conspiring to smuggle a kilogram of hashish into the nation from neighbouring Malaysia.

Protesters beforehand claimed that the 46-year-old, who denied involvement within the plot, had been convicted on weak proof – a declare denied by authorities in Singapore.

Relatives and activists had beforehand despatched letters to Singapore’s President Halimah Yacob to plead for leniency.

His sentence additionally drew the eye of the United Nations Human Rights Office, which referred to as on the federal government to “urgently reconsider”, whereas British entrepreneur Richard Branson described the case as “shocking”.

Transformative Justice Collective (TJC), a neighborhood group that had additionally campaigned towards Tangaraju Suppiah’s loss of life sentence, stated he had been hanged in Changi jail on Wednesday.

The Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network condemned the execution as “reprehensible”.

“The continued use of the death penalty by the Singaporean government is an act of flagrant disregard for international human rights norms and casts aspersion on the legitimacy of Singapore’s criminal justice system,” the assertion stated.

Singapore’s anti-drug legal guidelines are among the strictest on the earth – with these responsible of trafficking greater than 500 grams of hashish probably going through the loss of life penalty.

Last yr, 11 individuals have been executed for drug offences in Singapore.

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Malaysia, a neighbouring nation, abolished obligatory loss of life penalties earlier this month.

However, Singapore’s authorities maintains the loss of life penalty is important to guard its residents and all these executed have been accorded full due course of underneath the legislation.

Authorities additionally say their strict legal guidelines act as a deterrent impact – and say a examine reveals that traffickers usually carry quantities beneath the edge that will convey a loss of life penalty consequently.

Although Tangaraju Suppiah was not caught with the hashish, prosecutors stated telephone numbers traced him because the individual liable for coordinating the supply of the medication.

He had maintained that he was not the one speaking with the others linked to the case.

An software filed on Monday for a keep of execution was dismissed with out a listening to on Tuesday.

The case drew criticism from British billionaire Richard Branson – a long-time campaigner towards the loss of life penalty.

In a weblog submit shared previous to the execution, he wrote: “Tangaraju’s case is shocking on multiple levels.

“Singapore has an extended and troubled historical past of executing drug offenders, following obligatory sentencing legal guidelines that proscribe the loss of life penalty for sure threshold quantities of medication.

“The country’s government has repeatedly claimed that its draconian laws serve as an effective deterrent of drug-related crime.

“However, Singaporean authorities have repeatedly failed to supply any tangible proof for that assertion.”