Surge of hangings in Singapore while Malaysia shuns death penalty.The young Malaysian, sentenced to death for couriering 7.97 ounces of heroin into the city-state in 2014, was among at least six individuals executed in Singapore this month for drug offenses. His fate was sealed after the President’s Office of Singapore rejected two petitions lodged by family members and civil society groups requesting clemency.
Though the Singapore Prison Service does not routinely release information about imminent executions apart from figures released in its annual report, anti-death penalty activists claim that seven executions have taken place since the beginning of October, including four this week.
WORLD’S STRICTEST DRUG LAWS
Both countries inherited colonial-era capital punishment laws from British rule, which impose the death penalty – carried out by hanging – for crimes such as murder, kidnapping, some firearms offenses, and drug trafficking. Singapore is regarded as having the world’s strictest drug laws and the majority of the country’s execution cases are for drugs offenses.
Those found possessing specific drugs above a prescribed amount are automatically presumed to be traffickers and are subject to the death penalty, a practice that despite attracting foreign criticism and condemnation by international rights groups is seen elsewhere in the region in Vietnam, Indonesia and – until recently – Malaysia.
Malaysia’s decision to pull back from capital punishment is part of broader institutional reform push now being undertaken by the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition, which clinched a historic election victory in May. The new government also intends to repeal the colonial-era Sedition Act, which critics said was long been used to stifle dissent.