Tangaraju Suppiah (Twitter)

SINGAPORE: DECADE-HIGH SURGE IN EXECUTIONS

January 17, 2024:

Singapore’s government carried out its highest number of executions in more than a decade and sought to intimidate anti-death penalty activists, Human Rights Watch said on January 11, 2024 in its World Report 2024. 
The government silenced critical voices in the lead-up to the 2023 presidential elections and censored independent reporting.
“Singapore reversed the Covid-19 hiatus on executions, kicking its death row machinery into overdrive,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government’s reinvigorated use of the death penalty merely highlighted its disregard for human rights protections and the inherent cruelty of capital punishment.”
The Singapore government faced widespread international condemnation by governments and United Nations agencies for its continued use of the death penalty for nonviolent drug-related offenses.
As of November 2023, the authorities executed 16 people, including Saridewi Djamani, the first woman to be executed in the country in almost two decades. In April, Singapore dismissed urgent calls from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and executed Tagaraju Suppia, who had been convicted for involvement in trafficking one kilogram of cannabis in 2013.
The government targeted independent media outlets with overly broad and restrictive laws that grant the authorities highly discretionary powers to censor online content. In July, the government enacted the Online Criminal Harms Act, which threatens to further undermine freedom of expression and free speech in the country.