International human rights organisation Amnesty International has slammed Singapore for being a “pariah state” when it comes to the use of the death penalty for drug-related crimes.
It is one of only four countries known to have carried out executions in recent years.
Singapore has carried out two executions this year and scheduled two more executions for tomorrow, July 7.
“Respecting human rights and international law and standards on the death penalty cannot simply be dismissed by weighing them against lives lost to drugs,” said Amnesty in response to comments by the city-state’s Law Minister K Shanmugam during an interview with BBC’s Hardtalk host, Stephen Sackur on June 29.
The rights group criticised Shanmugam for his extremely selective reference to guidance provided by United Nations (UN) bodies tasked with drug policy.
“The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) have unambiguously condemned the use of the death penalty for drug-related offences.
“They have urged governments to move towards abolition,” it said.
Unlawful killings
In the interview, Sackur pointed out the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network’s (Adpan) description of Singapore’s international reputation as having deteriorated significantly as a result of the execution of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam.
Sackur described that Nagaenthran was caught with the equivalent of three tablespoons of heroin as he entered Singapore.
“He has an IQ of 69. Medical experts say that represents intellectual disability.
“And after more than a decade on death row, you hanged him,” said the programme host.
Sackur then narrated the UN’s stand on the issue: “The execution of persons with intellectual disabilities for drugs-related offences representation a violation of a right to life and the right to be free from torture, cruel and inhuman degrading treatment.”
“They amount to unlawful killings,” he quoted.
During the interview, Shanmugam declared that the courts had found Nagaenthran to have the working of a criminal mind who made a deliberate, purposeful, calibrated, calculated decision to make money and bring drugs into the country.
He postulated the mandatory sentencing to death of traffickers was a deterrent as drug-related arrests had dropped from 6,000 to 3,000 over 30 years despite UNODC statistics revealing a record haul of one billion meth tablets seized in Southeast Asia..
Sackur asked if Shanmugam was prepared to see the country’s reputation sink because of the draconian decisions he (Shanmugam) insisted on making.
The Singaporean minister replied that protecting Singaporeans was key, ending with his quote that “a single hanging of a drug trafficker is a tragedy; a million deaths from drug abuse is a statistic”.
‘Shanmugam basically murdered a child’
In its response, Amnesty explained that Singapore’s punitive drug policies had not only failed to tackle the use and availability of drugs in the country but are also ineffective tools to protect people against the risks and harms of drugs.
Referring to the Hardtalk interview, Nagaenthran’s Malaysian counsel, N Surendran, said Shanmugam had avoided addressing the cruelty and gross injustice in hanging a person like Nagaenthiran, whose IQ of 69 was internationally recognised as denoting mental disability.
“Nagaenthran had the mentality of a child, as anyone who met him in prison could see. Shanmugam basically murdered a child.
“The responsibility lies squarely at his feet because he has been the most obdurate and mulish defender of Singapore’s notorious death penalty regime,” he told Malaysiakini.
Surendran called Shanmugam out in his efforts to divert attention to the people who were victims of drug abuse, describing the minister’s responses as “emotive rhetoric” which did not, in any way, legal or moral, justify the hanging of a mentally disabled person.
“Shanmugam claims we are making the hanging of a single drug trafficker a tragedy, but what critics of the death penalty are saying is that the death penalty in drug cases is disproportionate; this is also the position of the UN,” he retorted.
UN criticised executions
Months before Nagaenthran’s execution, Surendran refuted the Singapore government’s statement that he had been granted due process.
This was after Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said its Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan replied to their Malaysian counterparts “to convey that Nagaenthran has been accorded full due process under the law”.
Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had personally appealed to Lee for a stay of execution to allow for a fresh clemency petition to be filed.
Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah also wrote to Vivian about the case.
Nagaenthran, a 33-year-old Malaysian, was sentenced to death in 2011 for trafficking 42.72g of diamorphine into Singapore. Heroin is made from diamorphine.
He was scheduled to be executed on Nov 10 but was granted a stay of execution on Nov 8 after his lawyers filed an 11th-hour constitutional challenge.
Nagaenthran later tested positive for Covid-19, resulting in an extension of the stay until after he recovers and after the appellate court hears his case.
Meanwhile, on May 12, a group of 11 UN experts condemned Singapore’s execution of Abdul Kahar Othman in March and Nagaenthran in April.
In a joint statement, they called on Singapore to impose an immediate moratorium on the death penalty, saying that the continued use of capital punishment for drug-related crimes ran contrary to international law.
‘Potential witnesses will be executed’
Nagaenthran was executed on April 27 this year, and Singapore has scheduled two more executions tomorrow, Malaysian Kalwant Singh a/l Jogindar Singh, 32, and Singaporean Narasharee Gous, 48.
Adpan executive director Dobby Chew said the Singapore government’s duty to protect its citizens did not end the moment someone commits a crime or is considered to be “unwelcomed”.
“Singapore hanged an intellectually disabled man who was victimised by drug syndicates who ought to have been protected from exploitation by criminal syndicates,” he reasoned.
In his statement to Malaysiakini, Chew said Kalwant had helped identify a drug trafficker and did his best to assist and will still hang despite his information.
Chew described Singapore’s persistence in hanging drug couriers and drug mules as a message to the drug trade that to: “Proceed with your next courier. We killed the potential witness that can testify against you.”
Malaysian rights group Sebaran Kasih urged the minister to show compassion and mercy on the offenders who should be viewed as poor mules who were human beings.
The group said Shanmugam, who was also Singapore’s home affairs minister, only fortified the view of the country as an intolerant, harsh, robotic and authoritarian regime. - Mkini
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