Singapore: UN human rights experts urge immediate death penalty moratorium

By Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

UN human rights experts today, the 12th of May 2022, called on the Government of Singapore to immediately impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, and said its continued use of capital punishment for drug-related crimes ran contrary to international law.

The experts condemned the execution in Singapore of a Singaporean and a Malaysian national, Abdul Kahar bin Othman and Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, in March and April 2022 respectively, for drug-related offences. They urged the Government to halt any plan to execute another Malaysian man, Datchinamurthy Kataiah, convicted for a similar offence.

Mr. Nagaenthran Dharmalingam was executed despite claims that he had an intellectual disability, as well as a deteriorating mental health condition, and was a victim of human trafficking. “Executions of persons with intellectual disabilities and for drug-related offences are a violation of the right to life and the right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and amount to unlawful killings,” said the experts.