Singapore has executed a 39-year-old man who was convicted of trafficking heroin in the city-state’s third hanging in just over a week, authorities say.
Mohamed Shalleh Adul Latiff was sentenced to death for possessing about 55g of heroin “for the purpose of trafficking” in 2019.
His punishment was carried out on Thursday, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said in a statement.
According to court documents, Mohamed Shalleh worked as a delivery driver before his arrest in 2016. During his trial, he claimed to have believed he was delivering contraband cigarettes for a friend to whom he owed money.
He became the 16th prisoner put to death since the government resumed executions in March 2022 after a two-year pause during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The execution – the fifth hanging this year – comes less than a week after Singapore executed the first woman in nearly 20 years for drug trafficking despite condemnation from rights groups. Saridewi Binte Djamani, a 45-year-old Singaporean, was executed on Friday for trafficking around 30g of heroin.
A man, Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, 57, had been hanged two days earlier for trafficking about 50g of heroin.
The United Nations has denounced the hangings and called for Singapore to place a moratorium on the death penalty.
Despite growing international pressure on the issue, Singapore insists that the death penalty is an effective deterrent against drug trafficking.
The wealthy financial centre has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws – trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis or more than 15g of heroin can result in the death penalty.