Less than a week ago, a 64-year-old Singaporean man was hanged for drug trafficking.

Yesterday, on 26 July, yet another man has been hanged for the same offence.

50YO Singaporean Man Hanged for Drug Trafficking

According to the Central Narcotics Bureau, a 50-year-old Singaporean male has been hanged on 26 July at Changi Prison Complex. Transformative Justice Collective also revealed that he was a Malay man, who has been imprisoned since 2015 for trafficking cannabis. He was sentenced to the death penalty.

Under Singapore’s Misuse of Drugs Act 1973, anyone who imports or exports over 200g of cannabis will receive the death penalty.

The CNB stated that he was accorded full due process under the law, and was represented throughout his case by a legal counsel. They also revealed that he had submitted a petition of clemency to the President, which was unsuccessful.

The name of the person is not revealed, so as to honour his family’s wish for privacy.

Participated in Filing Suit on Racial Bias in Capital Punishment

According to Transformative Justice Collective, this man was one of 17 prisoners who participated in filing a civil case in 2021. They accused Singapore of racial bias in capital punishment, citing statistics on how Malay offenders were more likely to be sentenced to death than other ethnicities.

However, the High Court dismissed the case in December 2021. They labelled the argument as an obscure casual link, and that it was a “speculative assertion”.

The judge said that statistical evidence alone isn’t enough to establish a connection between being Malay and being discriminated against during sentencing.

Sixth Execution in Four Months, After Zero Executions in 2020 and 2021

Singaporean Abdul Kahar Othman, 68, was hanged on 30 March for drug trafficking. A month later, on 27 April, Malaysian Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, was hanged.

Early this month, on 7 July, Kalwant Singh and Norasharee Gous were hanged. Afterwards, Nazeri bin Lajim, 64, was hanged on 22 July for drug trafficking.

This 50-year-old man’s execution marks the sixth hanging in four months. This comes after we had zero executions in 2020 and 2021.

However, it doesn’t mean that nobody was sentenced to death during those two years. Rather, there were still people being handed the death sentence, but executions were halted due to the pandemic. Activist groups have sounded out that this might have led to a backlog of death-row inmates that the Government is now trying to clear.

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