Singapore: Singapore on Wednesday hanged a 46-year-old man who was convicted of conspiracy to smuggle one kilogram of cannabis, news agency AFP reported.
Tangaraju Suppiah was convicted in 2017 of ‘abetting by engaging in a conspiracy to traffic’ of 1,017.9 gramms of cannabis, before being sentenced to death in 2018.
Singapore went ahead with the execution despite calls to halt it issued by the United Nations Human Rights Office for Singapore and Geneva-based Global Commission on Drug Policy, alongside pressure from rights groups, according to AFP.
Meanwhile, the Singapore Prisons Service reportedly said that capital punishment of Singaporean Tangaraju Suppiah carried out today at Changi Prison Complex.
Richard Branson, who is a member of Global Commission on Drug Policy, said on Monday in his blog that Singapore was to put to death an innocent man as Tangaraju was ‘not anywhere near’ the drugs when he was arrested.
Following international calls to halt the execution, Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry on Tuesday said that Tangaraju's crime was ‘proven beyond a reasonable doubt’.
The ministry further clarified that two phone numbers linked to Tangaraju had been used to ‘coordinate the delivery of the drugs’.
Tangaraju's family vainly pleaded for clemency even as they pressed for a retrial of the case.
Tangaraju's execution is first in six months and 12 th since Singapore resumed capital punishment in March 2022 after more than two years, according to the report.