KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – Two drug traffickers were hanged on Thursday in Singapore, bringing the number of executions this year in the city-state to four, despite mounting calls to abolish the death penalty.
Activists say the prison ward handed over the belongings and death certificates of Malaysian citizen Kalwant Singh and Singaporean Norasharee Gous to their families after their execution Thursday morning.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other anti-death penalty groups said the executions were a flagrant violation of international human rights standards.
Amnesty said Singapore is one of only four countries known to have executed people for drug-related crimes in recent years, countering a global trend to abolish the death penalty.
“The death penalty is never the solution and we are against it unreservedly. There is no evidence that it is a unique crime deterrent,” said Emerlynne Gil, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director of investigation.
“We urge the Singaporean authorities to immediately stop this latest wave of hangings and impose a moratorium on executions as a step towards ending this outrageous and inhumane punishment,” Gil said in a statement.
Kalwant, who was convicted in 2016 of bringing heroin into Singapore, was the second Malaysian to be executed in less than three months. In late April, the hanging of another Malaysian sparked international outrage as he was believed to be mentally retarded.
Kalwant filed a last-minute appeal on the eve of his execution on the grounds that he was only a courier and that he had cooperated with the police, but Singapore’s highest court rejected it, activists said.
Critics say the death penalty in Singapore has mostly snared low mules and has done little to stop drug traffickers and organized syndicates. But Singapore’s government is defending it when necessary to protect its citizens, saying all those executed have been given a full fair trial under the law.
Four other drug traffickers, including two more Malaysians, were expected to be hanged earlier, but their executions were postponed pending legal proceedings.
Human Rights Watch reiterated its call on Singapore to end executions for all drug-related crimes and commute the sentences of those on death row.
“Recent drug busts in the country show how hollow Singapore’s claims are about the alleged deterrent effect of these brutal executions,” said deputy Asia director Phil Robertson. “The countries involved in the growing global movement to abolish the death penalty would reverse Singapore’s recalcitrant behavior and demand that all executions stop.”
