Executed for cannabis — Is Singapore’s latest execution the harshest in history?

MAY 7 – On April 26, 2023, Tangaraju Suppiah was hanged by his neck until he died. The sentence was carried out at Changi Prison, where all of Singapore’s post-independence executions were carried out.

Suppiah paid the top price for trading around a kilogram of cannabis. His family maintained his innocence, but he was convicted and executed.

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However, the question here goes beyond innocence and guilt. Beyond the fundamental validity of the death penalty and whether the state has the right to take human life, the real question here is whether one’s life should be sacrificed for the cannabis trade.

In a world where more and more countries have legalized the substance and it is even available recreationally in neighboring countries, the verdict seems extraordinary.

Virtually no nations, even those with notoriously tough anti-drug laws like the United Arab Emirates and China, execute people for cannabis-related offences. Even historically, executions for cannabis trafficking are poorly documented.

It is hard to imagine at any level how cannabis could be the subject of a death penalty given that the argument for the death penalty in drug trafficking cases is that drugs can kill and cause critical damage to society and therefore the death penalty is one valid deterrent.

But there’s little evidence that recreational cannabis use is deadly – which is why it’s increasingly legal around the world.

If the drug in question doesn’t cause deaths, why kill people for selling it? Certainly, in this case, a long prison sentence would have been more appropriate when it came to breaking the law.

Taking someone’s life because they are only carrying around a kilogram of cannabis seems amazing, especially when cannabis is easy to obtain and smoke almost effortlessly in countries like the United States and Australia.

I personally have a hard time understanding the logic of this sentence – the punishment doesn’t seem commensurate with the crime. Last year, Malaysian man Nagendran Dharmalingam was executed in Singapore for heroin trafficking.

The case drew considerable outcry as many believed Nagendran was mentally handicapped and unable to understand his crime or his conviction. There were requests for his release and the case attracted worldwide attention.

It is worth noting that Suppiah was a native Indian from a poor background. It is striking that men from vulnerable and poor backgrounds appear to make up a large number of those executed for drug-related offenses in Singapore.

If we want to execute people for drug trafficking, surely it is the high-ranking people who should be employed to execute them?

It’s also baffling and shocking that the outcry was so muffled. Perhaps many people like me find it hard to believe that something like this could happen.

*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.