Kalwant Singh

SINGAPORE: TWO DRUG TRAFFICKERS HANGED DESPITE OPPOSITION

July 7, 2022:

Two drug traffickers were hanged in Singapore on 7 July 2022, bringing the number of executions this year in the city-state to four despite growing calls to abolish its death penalty.
Activists said the prison department handed the belongings and death certificates for Malaysian national Kalwant Singh, 31, and Singaporean Norasharee Gous, 48, to their families after their execution.
Kalwant, who was convicted in 2016 of bringing heroin into Singapore, was the second Malaysian to be executed in less than three months. In late April, the hanging of another Malaysian sparked an international outcry because he was believed to be mentally disabled.
Kalwant filed a last-minute appeal on the eve of his execution on grounds that he was a mere courier and that he had cooperated with police, but it was rejected by Singapore's top court, activists said.
In a statement on 5 July, Singapore authorities said Norasharee and Singh -- both convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to the mandatory death penalty -- had exhausted their legal appeals.
Both men had been on death row for the past six years while numerous campaigners called for clemency. 
According to the Central Narcotics Bureau, both men were sentenced to death in June 2016.
Singh had been found guilty of possessing 60.15 grams (2.1 ounces) of heroin and trafficking in 120.9 grams of the drug, while Norasharee was convicted of soliciting a man to traffic 120.9 grams of heroin.
In Singapore, trafficking a certain amount of drugs -- for example, 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin -- results in a mandatory death sentence under the Misuse of Drugs Act, though the law was recently amended to allow for a convicted person to escape the death penalty in certain circumstances.
Critics say that Singapore's death penalty has mostly snared low-level mules and done little to stop drug traffickers and organized syndicates. But Singapore's government defends it as necessary to protect its citizens and says all those executed have been accorded full due process under the law.
Four others drug traffickers, including two more Malaysians, were scheduled to be hanged earlier but their executions were delayed pending legal challenges.