Singapore steps up executions and pressure on anti-death penalty groups | News of the death penalty

Singapore – Masoud Rahimi Mehrzad’s father was in a remote part of Iran when he received the news he had feared for a long time.

His son was to be hanged at Changi Prison in Singapore.

Weighed down by his deteriorating health and with just a week’s notice until his execution in the early hours of November 29, he was unable to make the arduous journey to see his son in person one last time, according to reports.

Instead, the last communication between father and son came through a long-distance phone call.

Without a final challenge, Masoud was hanged on the last Friday of November, the first time he was arrested on drug charges in more than 14 years.

Masoud, 35, became the ninth person to be hanged in Singapore this year.

“With four executions in November alone, the Singaporean government continues to pursue its brutal use of the death penalty,” said Bryony Lau, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch.

Anti-death penalty campaign groups believe there are around 50 prisoners on death row in Singapore.

Despite opposition from prominent human rights groups and United Nations experts, Singapore says the capital punishment is an “effective deterrent” to drug traffickers and ensures the city is “one of the safest places in the world”.

A UN expert group said in a joint statement last month that Singapore should “move away from reliance on criminal law and adopt a human rights-based approach to drug use and drug use disorders”.

Stories of the plight of death row inmates often come from activists, who work tirelessly to fight for the rights of those facing the final punishment.

The latest wave of killings has now left them reeling.

“It’s a nightmare,” said Kokila Annamalai, a prominent anti-death penalty campaigner for the Transformative Justice Collective (TJC).

His work led him to develop close relationships with many death row inmates.

“They are more than just the people we are campaigning for. They are our friends too, they feel like our children. It was very difficult for us personally,” Annamalai told Al Jazeera.

‘Losing another son, he couldn’t accept it’

Like almost all Singapore death row inmates, Masoud was convicted of drug offences.

Born in Singapore to an Iranian father and a Singaporean mother, he spent his childhood between Iran and Dubai.

At the age of 17, he returned to Singapore to complete his compulsory national service and it was during this period of his life that he was arrested on drug charges.

In May 2010, at the age of 20, she drove to meet a Malaysian man at a petrol station in central Singapore. Masoud took the package from the man, before leaving. They were immediately stopped by the police. They searched the package and other bags they found in the car.

In total, police found more than 31 grams of diamorphine, also known as heroin, and 77 grams of methamphetamine.

Masoud was arrested for possession of drugs with the intention of selling them.

Under Singapore’s strict laws, anyone caught in possession of more than 15 grams of heroin can face the death penalty.

Masoud told police he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. He also accused the illegal moneylending gang of planting drugs to frame him.

His defense did not stand up in court and he was sentenced to death in 2015.

Masoud’s sister, Mahnaz, released an open letter shortly before her brother was hanged last month. He painfully explained to them their father who was sentenced to death.

“My father was very heartbroken, and he never recovered. One of my brothers died at the age of 7 from appendicitis … losing another son, he couldn’t accept it,” he wrote.

Masoud fought hard against his conviction, but several legal challenges were unsuccessful, as was a plea for clemency from Singapore’s President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

Before he was executed, Masoud’s sister recounted how her brother had volunteered his time on death row to help other prisoners in their legal battles.

“He invested a lot in helping them find peace,” said Mahnaz.

“He sees it as his responsibility to fight for his life and that of others, and he wishes that everyone on death row feels the same interest, to share,” he said.

‘People are starting to care more deeply’

In October, Masoud was one of 13 death row inmates who won a lawsuit against the Singapore Prison Service and the Attorney General’s Chambers, after they were deemed to have acted unlawfully by disclosing and requesting private documents from inmates.

The court also found that the prisoners’ right to privacy had been violated.

Masoud was supposed to represent a group of 31 prisoners in a constitutional challenge against a new law related to the appeals process in death penalty cases. A hearing on that legal challenge is still scheduled for the end of January 2025, a date well overdue for Masoud.

Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau said Masoud’s execution was carried out ahead of an upcoming high court trial “not related to his conviction or sentence”.

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, homicides have increased in recent years in the Southeast Asian financial region.

According to news reports, 25 prisoners have been sentenced in Singapore since 2022, with authorities showing little hope of softening their approach to punishing drug traffickers.

Anti-death penalty campaigners in the city-state continue to voice their anger at the government’s actions, using social media to raise awareness of issues affecting death row inmates.

However, they have started receiving “disciplinary orders” from government authorities, issued under Singapore’s controversial fake news law.

Annamalai’s TJC team has been targeted by the law – the Prevention of Falsehood and Fraud on the Internet Act (POFMA) – over several posts related to death penalty cases.

The campaign group has been instructed to include a “correction notice” in its original post and share an online link to the government’s website, for further clarification.

“It’s always a case of a death row inmate who gets POFMA’d”, says Annamalai.

Describing the stories of each prisoner as “very powerful”, Annamalai says the group was targeted because “people start to care deeply and want to take action when they read them”.

‘Trying to silence us’

Rights groups have criticized the authorities’ recent crackdown on activist groups.

“We strongly condemn the ongoing intimidation and fear-mongering by the authorities towards anti-death penalty activists in Singapore and demand an immediate end to the torture of activists,” the seven anti-death penalty groups said in a joint statement. in October.

Elizabeth Wood, CEO of the Capital Punishment Justice Project, based in Melbourne, Australia, and one of the letter’s signatories, said those who fight to end the executions are viewed as “glorified” drug traffickers.

“They announced that they will create a day to remember those who have suffered because of drugs. That is another way of accusing activists of promoting and trying to harass drug traffickers,” said Wood.

Lau of Human Rights Watch said “the Singaporean government should not use its repressive and overly broad laws to try to silence activists against the death penalty”.

Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs declined an interview request from Al Jazeera.

In a recent statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs said they “do not target, silence and harass organizations and people just for speaking out against the death penalty”.

TJC’s Annamalai said she will continue her activism, despite facing POFMA for editing posts on her personal Facebook page.

Although he faces the risk of a fine or prison sentence, Annamalai said he will not settle.

“They are trying hard to silence us, but they will not succeed,” he added.