All persons sentenced to capital punishment in Singapore are accorded full due process under the law, said Singapore's Permanent Mission to the UN. - The Straits Times/ANN
SINGAPORE, April 30 (The Straits Times/ANN): All persons sentenced to capital punishment in Singapore are accorded full due process under the law, and capital punishment has helped to deter serious crimes, said the Permanent Mission of Singapore to the United Nations in Geneva in a statement on Friday.
It added that countries have the sovereign right to choose the approach that best suits their own circumstances, and Singapore will continue to implement evidence-based measures that have worked well for it in the fight against drugs.
The permanent mission was responding to comments from the United Nations Human Rights Office on the execution of convicted drug trafficker Tangaraju Suppiah, who was hanged on April 26.
The 46-year-old Singaporean was convicted in 2018 of abetting the trafficking of 1,017.9g of cannabis – an amount that is more than twice the capital threshold.
During a press briefing on April 25, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman Ravina Shamdasani had urged Singapore’s authorities not to proceed with Tangaraju’s execution, and raised concerns around “due process and respect for fair trial guarantees”.
She called on the Singapore Government to adopt a formal moratorium on executions for drug-related offences, and to ensure the right to a fair trial for all defendants in line with its international obligations.
On Friday, the permanent mission responded that all persons sentenced to capital punishment in Singapore are accorded full due process under the law, and that a capital sentence is imposed only after a rigorous legal process with stringent safeguards.
Every capital sentence imposed must be examined and confirmed by the Court of Appeal, regardless of whether the convicted person appeals against the conviction or sentence, it said.
On the issue of the death penalty as a deterrence, it added that capital punishment has worked to discourage drug traffickers from bringing in large amounts of drugs.
It cited a 2021 public perception survey commissioned by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which polled more than 7,200 people from countries in the region where most of the drug traffickers arrested by Singapore authorities originated.
The study reported that 87 per cent of respondents believed capital punishment makes people not want to traffic substantial amounts of drugs into Singapore; and 83 per cent believed that capital punishment is more effective than life imprisonment in discouraging people from trafficking drugs into Singapore.
The permanent mission said that Ms Shamdasani’s comments “glossed over” the serious harms that drugs cause, which is “regrettable”.
It pointed out that drug abuse is a pervasive problem with severe consequences for individuals and entire societies, including social, economic and health-related issues.
“Singapore cannot afford such a high cost to our society and our people,” it said. - The Straits Times/ANN
