Singapore Executes Third Drug Trafficker in Two Weeks

Singapore - Another prisoner convicted of drug trafficking was executed in Singapore as part of its third execution in a span of two weeks. The execution took place as planned despite requests from a number of sources encouraging the city-state to reevaluate the death penalty for drug-related charges.

Mohamed Shalleh Abdul Latiff, a Singaporean who was 39 years old, was the most recent death penalty offender and was executed at Changi Prison. The Central Narcotics Bureau determined that the 54 grams (1.9 ounces) of heroin that he was found guilty of trafficking was sufficient to meet the addiction needs of around 640 abusers for a week.

📷: Photo by Andrea Durey (for illustration only)

Before his arrest in 2016, Shalleh, a Malay man of ethnicity, had been employed as a delivery driver. He received a death sentence in 2019, and despite an appeal, the sentence was upheld in 2018. The Transformative Justice Collective, a Singapore-based group that opposes the death sentence, asserted that Shalleh maintained throughout his trial that he thought he was carrying illegal smokes for a friend to whom he owed money and that he did not check the bag's contents because he trusted his friend.

Even though Shalleh was just serving as a courier, the High Court judge decided that their relationship wasn't close enough to justify such trust. As a result, Shalleh was nevertheless sentenced to death because the prosecution did not issue him with a certificate of cooperation.

The Singaporean law, those found guilty of trafficking more than 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of cannabis and 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin will receive the death penalty.

The execution of Shalleh will be the fifth this year and the 16th for drug charges since Singapore reinstated the death penalty in March 2022 after a two-year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Singapore executed two more citizens last week. Saridewi Djamani, 45, was found guilty of trafficking roughly 31 grams (1 ounce) of heroin and was the first woman to be hung in 19 years. Two days prior, 56-year-old Mohammed Aziz Hussain was executed by hanging for distributing about 50 grams (1.75 ounces) of heroin.

The United Nations, a number of human rights organizations, and international organizations have repeatedly urged Singapore to put an end to drug-related executions, claiming that there is mounting evidence that such a policy is ineffective as a deterrence. Authorities in Singapore nevertheless insist that the death penalty is essential for reducing drug demand and supply.

Critics claim that low-level traffickers and couriers, who are frequently hired from vulnerable and underprivileged populations, are disproportionately affected by Singapore's severe approach. Additionally, they make the point that Singapore is out of step with the growing trend of other nations abandoning the death penalty, with Malaysia abolishing the mandatory death penalty for severe crimes this year and Thailand's neighbor, which it shares a border with, legalizing marijuana.

✎_____________________ 

References/Credits: Singapore executes third prisoner in 2 weeks for drug trafficking - ABC News (go.com)

📹