Singapore hangs two prisoners convicted of drug trafficking

The authorities of Singapore Two prisoners sentenced to death for drug crimes were executed this Thursday, the first executions after the death sentence of an inmate with intellectual disabilities was completed in April.

the malaysian Kalwant Singh31, and Singaporean Norasharee Gous48, were hanged – the method by which Singapore executes the condemned – in the early hours of the morning in Changi prison.

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Activist Kirsten Han, coordinator of the NGO Transformative Justice Collective calling for the abolition of capital punishment, confirmed the execution of the sentences.

“The relatives of both (executed) are in prison” to recover the mortal remains of their relativesHan said in a message posted on the social network Twitter.

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Kalwant was arrested in October 2013 in possession of 60 grams of heroin.while Norasharee, the alleged mastermind of the operation, was arrested in July 2015 and charged with trafficking 120 grams of heroin.

Both were sentenced to death in October 2016 for crimes related to drug trafficking, while a third detainee – who testified against Kalwant and Norasharee – was sentenced to life imprisonment and 15 strokes with the cane.

Han said that since 2017, 29 people have been executed in Singaporethe vast majority for drug-related crimes.

On April 27, Singapore executed malaysian prisoner Nagaenthran Dharmalingam -convicted of drug trafficking- despite criticism from the international community and requests for the suspension of this prisoner’s sentence with proven intellectual disability.

Last week, Singapore’s Home Minister, K. Shanmugam, defended the execution of Nagaenthran and others during a BBC interview, claiming that capital punishment “saves lives” in the fight against drugs.

Singapore has one of the most draconian laws on the planet against drug use and trafficking, which punishes in most cases with the death penalty, carried out in a very opaque way.

Activists like Han warn that the current near saturation on death row is leading to an acceleration of executions after two years of hiatus due to the pandemic, and that they resumed on March 30 with the execution of a Singaporean also convicted of drug trafficking

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.