Indian-origin man scheduled to be executed in Singapore for drug trafficking
A 46-year-old Indian-origin man who was found guilty of assisting drug trafficking in Singapore is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, a media report said on Tuesday, as the city-state rejected calls by prominent anti-death penalty campaigners to halt the capital punishment. Tangaraju Suppiah was sentenced to end the death on October 9, 2018, for attempting to traffic more than 1 kg of cannabis to Singapore.
He was confined in 2014 for drug consumption/utilization and failure to report for a drug test
Tangaraju is scheduled/booked to be hanged on Wednesday, according to/as per a Channel News Asia report.
On Tuesday, Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) strongly reacted to a blog post by British billionaire Richard Branson titled “Why Tangaraju Suppiah doesn’t deserve to die.” In the post, Branson claimed that Suppiah’s conviction did not meet standards and that “Singapore may be about to kill an innocent man.”
According to the ministry, Branson’s views regarding a Singaporean on death row demonstrated “disrespect” for the judges and criminal justice system of the nation.
In addition to Branson, statements were made by Australian MP Graham Perrett and the European Union Delegation to Singapore
On Monday, the EU and diplomatic missions of EU member states, Norway, and Switzerland in Singapore issued a joint statement urging the authorities to stop Tangaraju’s execution and instead, give him a non-capital sentence.
MHA refutes claims and defends High Court’s examination of the case
