Indian-origin man to be executed in Singapore for trafficking drugs

A 46yearold Indianorigin convicted of abetting drug trafficking in Singapore is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday a media report said on Tuesday as the citystate rejected calls by prominent antideath penalty campaigners to halt the capital punishmentTangaraju Suppiah was sentenced to death on October 9 2018 for attempting to traffic more than 1 kg of cannabis to SingaporeHe was detained in 2014 for drug consumption and failure to report for a drug testTangaraju is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday according to a Channel News Asia reportSingapores Ministry of Home Affairs MHA on Tuesday strongly reacted to British billionaire Richard Bransons blog post Why Tangaraju Suppiah doesnt deserve to die which claimed that Suppiahs conviction did not meet standards and that Singapore may be about to kill an innocent manThe ministry said Bransons views on a Singaporean on death row showed disrespect for the countrys judges and criminal justice systemApart from Branson statements were also issued by the Delegation of the European Union to Singapore and Australian MP Graham PerrettThe EU statement jointly issued on Monday with the diplomatic missions of EU member states Norway and Switzerland in Singapore called on authorities to halt Tangarajus execution and commute his sentence to a noncapital sentencePerrett had expressed his views in a Facebook post last Thursday saying he was concerned that the planned execution of Tangaraju violates international law standards according to the reportThe MHA responding to the billionaires post said that his claims were patently untrue and that it was regrettable that Branson in wanting to argue his Tangarajus case should resort to purporting to know more about the case than Singapores Courts which had examined the case thoroughly and comprehensively over a period of more than three yearsAlso Read Mumbai Actress Chrisann Pereira was made drug muleTangarajus defence was that he was not the person communicating with the two others involved in the case However the High Court found Tangarajus evidence unbelievable and found that he was communicating with the two others and was coordinating the delivery and receipt of cannabis to himself through the two others the ministry saidIt said that contrary to Bransons suggestion that Tangaraju was actually not anywhere near drugs at the time of his arrest the evidence clearly showed that he was coordinating the delivery of drugs for traffickingTangaraju was involved in a case with two others where his phone numbers were used to communicate with the two others involved in the delivery of the cannabis the MHA said adding that the High Court also found that Tangaraju had the intention to traffic the cannabisThe ministry reiterated Singapores zerotolerance stance and multipronged approach to tackling drug abuse which includes rehabilitation programmesThe death penalty is an essential component of Singapores criminal justice system and has been effective in keeping Singapore safe and secure said the MHA adding that it is applied judiciously with stringent safeguardsLast September Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said Singapores policy of having the death penalty for drug trafficking is in the interest of SingaporeansCiting a survey by the ministry which showed that nearly 87 per cent of Singaporeans support the death penalty Shanmugam said So there isnt a great deal of argument within Singapore Its some people who keep repeating the points He added that Singapore is not alone in capital punishment laws The death penalty is also in place in the worlds three largest countries China India and the United StatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever