26 July 2022 :
Singapore hanged a 49-year-old man on 26 July 2022 for trafficking cannabis, the sixth execution in four months in the city-state.
The news was confirmed by activist Kokila Annamalai, who posted on Twitter that “We have confirmation that a 49 year-old Singaporean Malay man was executed (…) at Changi Prison. He has lived in prison since 2015, after being convicted of trafficking in cannabis…”
Little was known about the execution of 26 July as of publication time, as Singapore reveals little information about the hangings. Local anti-death penalty NGOs usually inquire about the deaths through other prisoners or inmates’ relatives, who in this case had yet to make any public statement.
These NGOs, including the Transformative Justice Collective, have said for months that because of the saturation on death row after two years without executions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Singapore would expedite hangings in 2022.
All prisoners executed this year have been convicted of drug trafficking and many are of Malaysian nationality or Singaporeans of Malay ethnicity, prompting some organizations to accuse authorities of racial discrimination.