Reacting to the executions of Chijioke Stephen Obioha, a Nigerian national, and Devendran Supramaniam, a Malaysian national, by the Singapore authorities, Josef Benedict, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said:
“The Singapore authorities have brazenly violated international law with these shameful executions. The death penalty is a cruel and irreversible punishment that most of the world has turned its back on. Singapore continues to remain an outlier, executing people for crimes that do not meet the ‘most serious’ threshold to which the death penalty must be restricted under international law.
“The executions took place secretively, with some details only emerging at the eleventh hour. When a person’s life is involved, the authorities must be fully transparent about their actions, to ensure that everyone has a right to a fair trial and due process is followed, allowing the families and the public at large can have easily access to all information on the case.
The death penalty is never a solution. It will not rid Singapore of drugs or serve as an effective deterrent.”
