Shillong, April 26: A 46-year-old man of Indian origin was hung on Wednesday in Singapore’s Changi Prison Complex after being found guilty of a conspiracy to smuggle one Kilogram of cannabis.
International organisations, such as the United Nations Human Rights Office, made numerous requests for the Singaporean government to “urgently reconsider” the execution before the hanging took place.
“Singaporean Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, had his capital sentence carried out today at Changi Prison Complex,” a representative for the Singapore Prisons Service stated.
In 2017, Tangaraju was found guilty of “abetting by engaging in a conspiracy to traffic” 1,017.9 grams of marijuana, more than twice the amount required in Singapore for a death sentence. In 2018, he was sentenced to death, and the Court of Appeal upheld this judgement.
Tangaraju was “not anywhere near” the narcotics when he was caught, according to British billionaire Richard Branson, a member of the Geneva-based Global Commission on Drug Policy, who posted it on his blog on Monday. He claimed that a victim could be an innocent man.
The convict’s family has lobbied for a retrial and made an appeal for mercy.
Singapore’s home affairs ministry declared on Tuesday that “Tangaraju’s guilt had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt”.