Truck driver Saminathan Selvaraju was hanged last Thursday in Singapore. He had been in prison since November 2013. He was sentenced to death for transporting 301.6 grams of heroin, a significant amount considering that, from 20-30 grams onwards, the dose is usually lethal. Additionally, in this country, being convicted of trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin already carries the death penalty.
Throughout all these years, Saminathan, a 42-year-old Malaysian citizen, has always maintained that he did not know the drugs were in the trailer and that other drivers had used the same vehicle that day. In September, he, along with other death row inmates, submitted a clemency petition to President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, which was rejected. Authorities have pointed out that those 301.6 grams could supply the addiction of about 3,590 people for a week.
At the end of November, along with Saminathan, two other drug offenders were also hanged, bringing the total number of executions this year to 17, the highest since 2003.
The European Union Delegation in Singapore, along with other diplomatic missions, strongly condemned these executions, emphasizing that imposing the death penalty for drug offenses contradicts international standards: these crimes, they warn, do not reach the threshold of "most serious crimes." Furthermore, they argue, the death penalty hinders rehabilitation, a central goal of modern criminal law.
Critics and human rights organizations have denounced that, with such draconian laws, Singapore, a prosperous and modern city-state in Southeast Asia with 5.7 million inhabitants, remains one of the most feared death corridors for drug traffickers. Even though at least 35 countries maintain the death penalty for drug trafficking, only eight regularly carry out the sentences, and Singapore is one of them.
This former British colony, which became an independent nation in 1965 after separating from Malaysia, not only inherited from its now Asian neighbor the death penalty for murder cases but also expanded the punishment to anyone who possesses, sells, transports, or has in their possession a minimum of 500 grams of cannabis, 250 grams of methamphetamine, or the aforementioned 15 grams of heroin.
"Singapore's barbaric drug control regime is increasingly isolated on the world stage", states the local activist group Transformative Justice Collective, one of those who filed a constitutional challenge against the death penalty for drug offenses that has been accepted to be heard this same week by a court. But after the recent three executions were announced - which are notified to the convicts just four or five days before being carried out - authorities have maintained that they remain the most deterrent and effective element against traffickers.
In October, the execution of Pannir Selvam Pranthaman was heavily criticized by human rights groups, a 38-year-old man who had been in prison since 2017 for trafficking 51.84 grams of heroin from Malaysia to Singapore.
"Despite evidence that he was a mere courier and had provided substantial information to the authorities, the Singapore Attorney General's Office refused to issue him a Substantive Assistance Certificate [a document certifying his cooperation with authorities in a broader drug trafficking investigation]. Without this certificate, the court had no choice but to sentence him to death," states an Amnesty International report.
"His case was also affected by the lack of legal representation during police interrogations and violations of communication with his lawyers to file appeals," it continues. A month earlier, another Malaysian citizen, K. Datchinamurthy, was executed after being convicted in 2015 for trafficking 44.96 grams of heroin.
Human rights groups often denounce that executions disproportionately affect ethnic minorities and the poorest individuals. "Malays [ethnic group], who represent only about 15% of the country's population, accounted for 84% of the executions for drug trafficking," read a UN report published three years ago.
The execution in 2022 of a Malaysian man with intellectual disabilities was particularly controversial. His name was Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, and he was sentenced to death for 43 grams of heroin. In the months leading up to his hanging, his lawyers and family members filed clemency requests asking for his death sentence to be commuted due to his intellectual disability. An evaluation found that he had an IQ of 69, a level internationally recognized as a learning disability. However, the courts rejected the request.
In the days leading up to Nagaenthran's execution, several hundred people, in protest of the sentence, gathered at Hong Lim Park, the only place in Singapore where demonstrations are allowed without prior authorization from the Police. However, the ruling People's Action Party, which has governed Singapore since the country's founding, has continued to maintain that the death penalty is essential to ensure the stability and security of the island nation.