Tangaraju Suppiah was hanged at dawn at Changi Prison, the BBC quoted family members as saying.
Published Date – 11:30 AM, Wed – 26 April 23
Photo: Twitter/Transformative Justice Collective
Singapore: Singapore on Wednesday executed a 46-year-old Tamil man convicted of conspiracy to smuggle 1 kilogram of marijuana, ignoring pleas from his family, activists and the United Nations to reconsider the death penalty.
Tangaraju Suppiah was hanged at dawn at Changi Prison, the BBC quoted family members as saying.
A day before the execution, a Singapore court rejected Suppiah’s application for a review of his case.
“The family said they would not give up on him until the end. It was such a tragic experience for them,” anti-death penalty campaigner Kirsten Han told the BBC on Wednesday.
“They still have a lot of unanswered questions about his case, and the evidence against him.”
Suppiah was convicted in 2013 of participating in a conspiracy to traffic 1,017.9 grams of marijuana from Malaysia to Singapore and sentenced to death in 2018.
The move came despite the UN Human Rights Office asking Singapore on Tuesday to “urgently reconsider” the death penalty.
Anti-death penalty activists say Supia was convicted due to insufficient evidence, that he was not given enough opportunities for translation and that he had to defend himself on a final appeal because his family was unable to hire a lawyer.
British billionaire Richard Branson slammed the execution, saying Singapore “may want to kill an innocent person” because of “suspicious circumstances”.
Singapore’s Home Affairs Ministry said on Tuesday that Tangaraju’s crimes had been proven beyond reasonable doubt, adding that Branson’s remarks showed “disrespect” for Singapore’s judges and the criminal justice system.
Suppiah’s execution was the first execution in Singapore after a gap of six months.
The city-state, which has some of the toughest drug laws in the world, imposed 11 death sentences in 2022.
The Singaporean government says the death penalty is an effective deterrent against drug crimes and has wide support from the public.
