A Singaporean man is scheduled to be hanged next week for conspiring to smuggle a kilogram of cannabis, rights groups said, in the city-state’s first execution in six months.
Singaporean Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, will be sent to the gallows on Wednesday, according to a notice from the prisons department received by his family and posted on social media by rights activists.
Amnesty International condemned the decision on Friday, calling it “extremely cruel”.
“If carried out, this execution would be in violation of international law and in stubborn defiance of continued outcry over Singapore’s use of the death penalty,” a spokesperson from Amnesty’s regional office told AFP.
In many parts of the world — including in neighbouring Thailand — cannabis has been decriminalised, with authorities abandoning prison sentences, and rights groups have been mounting pressure on Singapore to abolish capital punishment.—AFP
