Nazeri bin Lajim

SINGAPORE: FIFTH EXECUTION IN UNDER FOUR MONTHS CARRIED OUT

July 24, 2022:

Nazeri bin Lajim, who was convicted of drug trafficking five years ago, has been hanged in Singapore’s Changi Prison.
The 64-year-old Singaporean was executed on 22 July morning as scheduled, the city-state’s prison service confirmed in an emailed statement to the AFP news agency.
Singapore has carried out a series of hangings in recent months, fuelling rare debate over the country’s continued use of the death penalty, particularly in drugs cases.
“Five people have been hanged this year in Singapore in period of less than four months,” Amnesty International’s death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement, noting that all those executed were drug offenders. “This relentless wave of hangings must stop immediately.”
Nazeri hoped for a last minute reprieve, arguing from prison via Zoom on 21 July for a stay of execution to allow him to find a lawyer. M Ravi, who represented him previously, has had his certificate to practice law taken away. The court rejected his appeal.
Nazeri was arrested in 2012 after being found with 33.39 grams (1.18 ounces) of heroin. Singapore considers anyone with more than 15 grams (0.5 of an ounce) of the drug to be a trafficker and imposes a mandatory death sentence.
Singapore argues that the death penalty is necessary to deter crime and drug trafficking.