UN urges Singapore to halt execution of Tangaraju Suppiah

The United Nations Human Rights Office pressed Singapore on Tuesday to “urgently reconsider” its scheduled execution of a man over one kilogramme of cannabis.

Singaporean Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday after he was convicted of conspiracy to traffic 1,018 grammes of cannabis, twice the amount that merits the death sentence in the city-state.

It would be Singapore’s first execution in six months and the 12th since last year.

The country has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws and insists the death penalty remains an effective deterrent against trafficking.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) disagrees.