A 68-year-old man was hung in Singapore for drug trafficking, the city state's first execution in more than two years, while the UN human rights office raised worry over a "surge in execution notifications."
Abdul Kahar bin Othman was convicted in 2013 on two counts of diamorphine trafficking. In 2015, he was sentenced to death.
Since 2019, no executions are known to have taken place in Singapore, owing to outstanding court cases compelling the authorities to cease procedures. However, relatives of individuals facing the death penalty believe that authorities are speeding up executions in order to make room on death row.
Abdul Kahar was hanged on Wednesday morning, according to Kirsten Han, a journalist and activist who has spent the last decade advocating against the death sentence.
He had battled drug addiction since his adolescence and had spent the most of his life in prison, she explained. His brothers explained to Han that their father, who worked for the British military, died when he was around 40 years old and that the family had struggled financially.
"The Singapore government frequently asserts that the death sentence is an effective deterrence against drug trafficking," Han stated. They discuss the problems that drugs may cause to addicts and argue that death punishment will help protect people and preserve lives. However, there is no conclusive evidence that the death sentence is more successful in deterring drug offenses than any other sanction."
According to her, Abdul Kahar's experience demonstrated that the problem was far more intricate than the "evil" drug trafficker and "victim" drug user storyline.
"He battled his own heroin addiction. He required ongoing treatment, counseling, and assistance in order to successfully reintegrate into society. His family, too, required assistance and direction on how to best support him. Rather than that, Abdul Kahar received punishment in the form of imprisonment, which served only to further remove him from society and subject him to stigma. And now he has departed."
Along with Abdul Kahar, seven other death row inmates have been served with execution notices since 2019, according to the Transformative Justice Collective, an organization that advocates for judicial system change in Singapore.
Among them is Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, a man with developmental impairments who spent a decade on death row for trafficking a minor amount of heroin. His appeal was denied Tuesday by Singapore's highest court, despite international outrage over his situation.
The UN Human Rights Office had urged the authorities to suspend Abdul Kahar's execution and reduce his punishment to a period of imprisonment. "We are worried about the increase in notices of impending execution this year," it stated.
In a joint statement, the heads of missions of the European Union, EU member states, Norway, and Switzerland encouraged the authorities to declare a moratorium on all executions "as a constructive first step toward its eradication."
"Today, more than two-thirds of the world's countries have become abolitionist in law or practice, confirming a global trend toward death penalty abolition." There is insufficient data to demonstrate that the death sentence is a more effective deterrence to crime than imprisonment." Additionally, any errors – which are unavoidable in any legal system – are irrevocable."
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