Rejecting international calls, Singapore executes Indian-origin man for supplying cannabis

Despite pleas for clemency from his family, activists, and the UN, Singapore has executed 46-year-old Tangaraju Suppiah for conspiring to traffic cannabis. The Indian-origin man was hanged at Changi Prison at dawn on Wednesday, his family informed.

Although a number of activists argue he was convicted on weak evidence and had limited access to legal help during his prosecution, authorities criticised them for questioning the court and said the man had received due process.

Singapore is known to have some of the toughest anti-drug laws in the world, which it argues are essential to prevent drug crime. Last year alone, the country executed 11 people on criminal charges concerning drugs, including intellectually impaired Nagaenthran Dharmalingam.

Singapore’s courts rejected on Tuesday a last-minute appeal from Tangaraju Suppiah’s family against his conviction. They and activists had even delivered letters to the country’s president in a last-minute plea for clemency.

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British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, who had previously criticised the execution of the intellectually impaired person, had called for a review of the case and a halt of the execution. He called the recent case “shocking on multiple levels”.

Tangaraju Suppiah was convicted of coordinating the delivery of about 1 kg of cannabis from Malaysia to Singapore in 2013. While he was not found with the drugs or during the delivery, prosecutors said he coordinated it.

Prosecutors traced phone numbers used by a deliveryman back to him. Tangaraju Suppiah denied communicating with others involved in the case. The law in Singapore attaches the mandatory death penalty to drug trafficking, but couriers receive lesser penalties.

Comparing other countries in the region, Malaysia recently abolished mandatory death sentences, saying they didn’t offer the results they were expected to. Meanwhile, cannabis has been decriminalised in several countries including in Thailand.