moratorium on executions, all 11
executions in 2022 were for drug-related
offences.
As Kirsten Han, abolitionist journalist and
advocate and leader of the Transformative
’The Singapore government has repeatedly
insisted, for decades, that the death penalty
deters the drug trade in Singapore, thus
keeping us safe from drugs. This is a widely
accepted narrative in Singapore, because it is
pushed so hard and so consistently by the
government. I think it’s completely wrong.
There’s no clear evidence that the death
penalty is more effective than any other
punishment in deterring drug offences.’
Justice Collective in Singapore argued:
Executions were put on hold in 2011 while
the Government reviewed the death penalty
regime. On 1 January 2013, a new law came
into effect giving judges discretion to
sentence drug offenders to life
imprisonment instead of the mandatory
death penalty for those who are certi ed by
the prosecutions as couriers who have
substantively assisted the authorities or
found to be suffering from a mental
abnormality. However, there continue to be
cases where people in those categories are
sentenced to death.
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Death sentences continued to be handed
down during the Covid 19 pandemic, with
some cases even being held over online
video conferencing, against international
fair trial standards.
Changi Prison, where death row prisoners are held.
Foreign Nationals
Foreign nationals only constitute 27% of the
population of Singapore and yet 48% of the
executions during 2016-2021, 67% of which
were for drug offences.
Of the 36 cases of foreign nationals
sentenced to death during this period, all of
them were men and 30 were sentenced to
death for drug traf cking. 87% of them were
Malaysian, with the others coming from
West Africa.
A number of cases are marked by mitigating
factors, such as intellectual disability or
mental illness, although these have not
been adequately considered by
Singaporean judges.
Case Studies
Punithan Genasan
A 37-year-old Malaysian man was sentenced
to death in May 2020 via Zoom during
Covid for traf cking 28g heroin. Abuse of
fair trial processes to conduct remote
hearings,