Singapore hangs drug trafficker in second execution of 2024

Singapore on Friday hanged a convicted drug trafficker, authorities said, in the city state’s second execution this year.

The 45-year-old Singaporean man was executed at Changi prison for trafficking 36.93 grams (1.3 ounces) of pure heroin, more than twice the 15 grams that merits the death penalty in the strict city state, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said.

Rights groups declined to give details about the convict’s identity and his case, as the family has requested privacy.

“He was accorded full due process under the law, and was represented by legal counsel throughout the process,” CNB said in a statement late Friday.

The man was convicted and sentenced to death in February 2019, and his legal appeals and petition for clemency have been dismissed, CNB added.

In February, a 35-year-old Bangladeshi man, Ahmed Salim, was sent to the gallows for the murder of his former fiancée in Singapore.

Friday’s execution brings the number of people hanged since Singapore resumed executions in March 2022 to 18, according to an Agence France-Presse tally.

Singapore has some of the world’s toughest anti-narcotics laws: trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis can result in the death penalty.

It had previously halted hangings for a two-year period during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The United Nations, rights groups and other opponents of capital punishment say it has no proven deterrent effect and have called for it to be discontinued.

Singaporean officials insist it has helped make the country one of Asia’s safest.