A 29-year-old Malaysian man of Indian origin was executed in Singapore on Friday for smuggling drugs. Prabagaran Srivijayan was sentenced to death in 2014 for smuggling 22.24 g of heroin, also known as diamorphine, while trying to enter the country, PTI reported.
The United Nations and human rights groups had appealed to Singapore to not carry out his capital punishment, but the country has maintained that the death penalty deters such criminal activities.
Srivijayan’s death sentence was carried out at Singapore’s Changi Prison Complex, the Central Narcotics Bureau said. He was arrested in April 2012 at the Woodlands Checkpoint causeway that connects Singapore to South Malaysia. He had been caught with two packets of the drug in his vehicle, the bureau said.
According to the Misuse of Drugs Act, Singapore awards the death penalty in cases where more than 15 g of heroin is involved.
Singapore executed the 29-year-old even though his lawyer on Thursday, on his family’s instructions, had asked Singapore’s top court to stay his client’s death sentence on the grounds that he had an appeal pending before the Malaysian Court of Appeal to initiate proceedings against Singapore in the International Court of Justice.
However, the Singapore’s judges of appeal had called the attempt to stop the execution because of court proceedings in another country “an abuse of process”.
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