He was sentenced for helping buy 1kg of marijuana. Now he’s been executed

Under Singapore legal guidelines, trafficking greater than 500 grams of hashish might outcome within the dying penalty.

Tangaraju was hanged on Wednesday morning and his household was given the dying certificates, in response to a tweet from activist Kirsten Han of the Transformative Justice Collective, which advocates for abolishing the dying penalty in Singapore.

Although Tangaraju was not caught with the hashish, prosecutors stated telephone numbers traced him because the individual chargeable for coordinating the supply of the medicine.

Tangaraju maintained he was not the one speaking with the others linked to the case.

At a United Nations Human Rights briefing on Tuesday, spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani referred to as on the Singapore authorities to undertake a “formal moratorium” on executions for drug-related offences.

“Imposing the death penalty for drug offences is incompatible with international norms and standards,” stated Shamdasani, who added that growing proof reveals the dying penalty is ineffective as a deterrent.

Singapore authorities say there’s a deterrent impact, citing research that traffickers carry quantities beneath the brink that might convey a dying penalty.

The island-state’s imposition of the dying penalty for medicine is in distinction with its neighbours.

In Thailand, hashish has primarily been legalised, and Malaysia has ended the obligatory dying penalty for severe crimes.

The Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network condemned Tangaraju’s execution as “reprehensible”.

“The continued use of the death penalty by the Singaporean government is an act of flagrant disregard for international human rights norms and casts aspersion on the legitimacy of Singapore’s criminal justice system,” the assertion stated.

Relatives and activists had despatched letters to Singapore’s President Halimah Yacob to plead for clemency.

In a video posted by the Transformative Justice Collective, Tangaraju’s niece and nephew appealed to the general public to lift considerations to the federal government over Tangaraju’s impending execution.

An software filed by Tangaraju on Monday for a keep of execution was dismissed and not using a listening to on Tuesday.

“Singapore claims it affords people on death row ‘due process’, but in reality fair trial violations in capital punishment cases are the norm,” stated Maya Foa, director of non-profit human rights organisation Reprieve.

“Defendants are being left without legal representation when faced with imminent execution, as lawyers who take such cases are intimidated and harassed.”

Critics say Singapore’s dying penalty has principally snared low-level mules and performed little to cease drug traffickers and organised syndicates.

But Singapore’s authorities says that every one these executed have been accorded full due course of beneath the regulation and that the dying penalty is important to guard its residents.

British billionaire Richard Branson, who’s outspoken in opposition to the dying penalty, had additionally referred to as for a halt of the execution in a weblog publish, saying that “Singapore may be about to kill an innocent man”.

Singapore authorities criticised Branson’s allegations, stating that he had proven disrespect for the Singaporean judicial system as proof had proven that Tangaraju was responsible.