Singapore will carry out its first execution of a woman in 19 years, following the hanging of a man on July 26, both for drug trafficking offenses. These executions have reignited the debate surrounding capital punishment in the city-state, with various human rights organizations and international figures calling for an end to the practice.
Mohammed Aziz Hussain, a 56-year-old Singaporean, was put to death at Changi Prison on July 26 after being found guilty of trafficking approximately 50 grams of heroin in 2018. Saridewi Djamani, a 45-year-old Singaporean woman, is due to be executed on July 28 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin marking the first time a woman had been hanged in Singapore since 2004.
Advocacy group Transformative Justice Collective, along with Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, have been vocal about their opposition to Singapore's use of capital punishment for drug offenses. According to their joint statement, Singapore has executed 15 people for drug offenses since resuming hangings in March 2022, averaging about one execution per month.
Under Singaporean law, anyone convicted of trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis or 15 grams of heroin faces a mandatory death sentence, regardless of their nationality. This harsh stance has faced criticism from various quarters, including British business magnate Richard Branson and the United Nations, who argue that the death penalty does not effectively deter drug-related crimes.
“Singaporean authorities must immediately stop these blatant violations of the right to life in their obsessive enforcement of misguided drug policies,” Adilur Rahman Khan, secretary-general of the International Federation of Human Rights, said in a statement.
Supporters of capital punishment in Singapore argue that it serves as a deterrent and helps in combating drug demand and supply. However, critics assert that the policy disproportionately affects low-level traffickers, often recruited from marginalized groups with intersecting vulnerabilities, rather than the higher-level drug kingpins.
In a 2022 interview, Law Minister K. Shanmugam reportedly acknowledged that Singapore's strict drug policy has not effectively targeted the kingpins but has instead focused on punishing small-scale traffickers. This has prompted calls for Singapore to reconsider its approach and adopt more humane and effective measures to address drug trafficking in the country.
The global trend appears to be moving away from capital punishment, with neighboring Thailand legalizing cannabis and Malaysia abolishing the mandatory death penalty for serious crimes recently. Against this backdrop, international pressure is mounting on Singapore to reconsider its stance on the death penalty for drug-related offenses and explore alternative methods of addressing drug issues in the country.
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