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Amnesty International and the United Nations Human Rights Office have called on Singapore to stop the hangings and abolish the "cruel and irreversible" death penalty. The rich city recently executed six men convicted of drug-related offenses, despite clemency demands from human rights groups and the neighboring country, Malaysia, which announced that this month that he was eliminating the death penalty by the end of the year.
This month, Singapore hanged six men, all charged with drug-related offenses.
Rachel Chhoa-Howard, an Amnesty International researcher in Singapore, said the death penalty "has no place in any society, as more than two-thirds of the world's countries recognize."
One of the men executed was the Malaysian national Prabu N. Pathmanathan, 31 years old. Pathmanathan, on death row since 2014 for holding diamorphine, was hanged in Changi prison on the morning of Friday 26 October.
The Singaporean Irwan bin Ali was also executed alongside Pathmanathan, following the "secret" hanging of Selamat bin Paki, according to the International Federation of Human Rights.
N. Surendran, Pathmanathan's family council, said that her leniency application had been illegally denied by the office of President of Singapore, Halimah Yacob, who had sent a letter to Prabu's family, claiming that she was' unable to access [their] request".
According to Surendran, Pathmanathan had become "a new man" and "very spiritual" after his stay in prison.
"He wanted to live. He wanted another chance, "said Surendran.
He stated that he was "extremely unfair and prejudicial to the prisoner and his family" to receive notice of less than a week of Pathmanathan's execution.
In the light of recent hangings, human rights groups have reinforced their calls for the definitive abolition of the death penalty by Singapore.
Rachel Chhoa-Howard, an Amnesty International researcher in Singapore, said the death penalty was against international law.
"It is time for Singapore to reinstate its moratorium on the death penalty and follow the example of the Malaysian government, which has suspended all executions and announced its intention to abolish the application of this cruel punishment for all crimes.
"The fact that Prabu Pathmanathan's family in Malaysia has been informed of its imminent execution – when their own government has just decided to put an end to this heinous practice – makes the case even more troubling," he said. she added.
"This cruel and irreversible punishment has no place in any society, as more than two thirds of the world's countries recognize."
On October 10, on the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Malaysia shockingly announced its intention to abolish the death penalty. The law is expected to come into force by the end of the year.
Most of the previous executions in Malaysia were mainly due to drug-related offenses, although crimes such as murder, kidnapping and treason were also subject to death.
Amnesty International is aware of a total of six executions in Singapore this year, all for drug-related crimes. In 2017, Singapore carried out eight executions, also for drug-related offenses, but details of all executions were not made public.
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