Despite appeals from his family and activists for mercy, Singapore executed a man convicted of drug trafficking on Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for his family.
In 2013, Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, was found guilty of aiding in the trafficking of more than 1 kg of cannabis, a crime punishable by the death penalty in the city-state, which is renowned for its strict drug regulations.
The family’s rights advocate, Kokila Annamalai, who is located in Singapore, verified that Suppiah had been hanged after the president turned down requests for clemency the night before his execution. An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by the Singaporean authorities.
Richard Branson, a well-known opponent of the death sentence and a British billionaire, claimed that Suppiah’s conviction did not meet the requirements for a criminal conviction because he was not in the vicinity of the narcotics at the time of his arrest.
The government responded that Branson was spreading untruths and insulting its legal system, adding that the accusation was “patently untrue” and that its courts had spent more than three years looking into the matter.
The United Nations Office for Human Rights had also urged Singapore to “adopt a formal moratorium on executions for drug-related offences” and to postpone the execution.
The death sentence is an effective drug deterrent, according to Singapore, which executed eleven people last year. The majority of its citizens also favour the practise.
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