SINGAPORE: Singapore has executed a man on charges of trafficking cannabis despite appeals for mercy from his family, activists and the United Nations.
According to the BBC, his family said that Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, was executed at Changi Prison on Wednesday’s wee hours.
Activists said Tangaraju, who was convicted of “abetting by engaging in a conspiracy to traffic” one 1-kilogram of cannabis from Malaysia to Singapore in 2013, had been denied legal access during his trial.
The Singaporean authorities said Tangaraju had received due process and slated activists for questioning the courts.
Though Tangaraju Suppiah was not arrested during the delivery, prosecutors claimed he was responsible for coordinating it. They said that they traced two telephone numbers used by a delivery man back to Tangaraju.
Singapore has the strictest anti-drug laws that it says are necessary to protect society.
Last year, Singapore hanged 11 people on drug charges, including a disabled man for trafficking heroin.
Anti-death penalty activist Kirsten Han told the BBC that the family said they would not give up on him until the end. It had been such a traumatic experience for them.
Earlier, his family members and social activists sent letters to Singapore’s president Halimah Yacob in a last-minute plea for mercy. British billionaire Sir Richard Branson had also demanded a halt to the execution and a review of the case.
Leela Suppiah, Suppiah’s sister, earlier told reporters at a news conference that she knew her brother had not done anything wrong. She had urged the court to examine the case from the start.
Under Singaporean law, drug traffickers get the death sentence, while couriers get lesser penalties.
In Tangaraju Suppiah’s last appeal, the judge had concurred with the prosecution that he was responsible for coordinating the cannabis delivery that made him ineligible for a more lenient sentence.
Activists said that Tangaraju Suppiah was denied adequate access to an interpreter and had to argue his last appeal on his own since his family could not secure a lawyer.
Singapore authorities said that he had requested an interpreter only during the trial process and not earlier. They said that he had access to legal counsel throughout the process.
