Singapore executes Indian-origin citizen for smuggling 1kg cannabis

Singapore said it executed a man convicted of smuggling 1kg (2.2 pounds) of cannabis into the country, despite renewed criticism of its death penalty for drug traffickers.

Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, of Indian origin, had his capital sentence carried out today at Changi Prison Complex, according to a Singapore Prison Service spokesperson.

The decision to proceed with the execution had been criticised by human rights groups such as Amnesty International, and British billionaire Richard Branson, a longtime critic of the financial hub’s use of capital punishment.

The city-state has long defended its uncompromising stance on drugs, arguing that it is not unique among nations in adopting capital punishment, and that its unflinching approach has helped curb drug usage.

Still, the nation’s tough policy is increasingly making it an outlier among its neighbours. Thailand decriminalised cannabis last year, while lawmakers in Malaysia voted earlier this month in favor of abolishing the mandatory death penalty and lifelong imprisonment.

While the city-state has moved away from imposing capital punishment for some crimes, it retains them for most trafficking offenses. Tangaraju, a Singaporean, was sentenced to death in 2018, after being found guilty of smuggling more than 500gof cannabis, the threshold for imposing the penalty. The country executed 11 inmates last year, all for drug-related offenses, compared to zero in 2020 and 2021 during a pandemic-induced pause.