Singapore Executes Fifth Drug Trafficker Since March

SINGAPORE - Singapore hanged a drug trafficker on Friday, July 22, the fifth execution in the city-state since March, after a court rejected a last-ditch appeal and despite pleas for clemency.

The spate of hangings – which included the widely criticized execution of a mentally disabled man in April – has prompted growing calls for Singapore to abolish the death penalty.

But the city-state, which has some of the world’s toughest anti-drugs laws, insists it remains an effective deterrent against trafficking.

On Friday, Singaporean man Nazeri Lajim was executed in prison, the prisons service said in a statement to AFP.

Also read: Indonesia, Singapore Sign Key Defense, Extradition Treaties

The 64-year-old was convicted in 2017 of possessing over 33 grams (1.1 ounces) of heroin “for the purpose of trafficking”, Singapore’s drug enforcement agency said.

This was enough “to feed the addiction of about 400 abusers for a week”, it added.

But Amnesty International urged an end to Singapore’s “relentless wave of hangings”.

“Rather than having a unique deterrent effect on crime, these executions only show the utter disregard the Singaporean authorities have for human rights and the right to life,” the group's death penalty expert Chiara Sangorgio said.

An appeals court on Thursday rejected a last-gasp plea, in which Nazeri appeared via video link, to stay the execution.