A 48-year-old Singaporean man has become the latest individual in Singapore to be executed for drug trafficking.
In a press release on Friday (4 Oct), the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said his capital sentence was carried out that same day.
Source: Tamara Gore on Unsplash
CNB said Mohammad Azwan bin Bohari was found to be in possession of three packets of drugs.
Source: Transformative Justice Collective on Facebook
The contents were analysed and found to contain at least 26.5g of diamorphine, otherwise known as pure heroin.
The drug was intended for trafficking, CNB added, noting,
The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for the death penalty if the amount of diamorphine trafficked is more than 15g.
26.5g of diamorphine is enough to feed the addiction of about 320 abusers for one week.
The Singaporean was convicted and sentenced to the death penalty on 11 Feb 2019, CNB said.
He subsequently appealed against his conviction and sentence, but the Court of Appeal dismissed his case on 24 Oct 2019.
He petitioned the President for clemency, but this was also unsuccessful.
Throughout the proceedings, he was accorded full due process under the law, including being represented by legal counsel throughout, CNB added.
More information about Azwan’s case was provided by Factually, a Government website that debunks misinformation and disinformation.
It said he was arrested on 17 Oct 2015 and underwent trial in the High Court, which convicted him of drug trafficking.
After his appeal was dismissed, he was a joint applicant in three legal proceedings along with three other death-row inmates.
All these proceedings were dismissed by the court as “they were found to be unmeritorious”. One of the applications was found to be “an abuse of the court process”.
His applications to the President for clemency were denied on 23 March 2020 and on 15 June 2022.
Azwan also filed two applications to stay his execution, according to Factually.
On 12 April this year, he was informed that his execution was scheduled for 19 April.
This was allowed by the court on the basis that he was involved in one pending court application, and his execution was stayed.
The application was struck out by the High Court on 20 May, with its appeal dismissed on 9 Sept.
On 19 Sept, Azwan and other inmates filed a fresh application, but it “had no bearing on Azwan’s conviction and sentence, and did not seek a stay of execution”.
He was then informed on 30 Sept that his execution was scheduled for 4 Oct.
Azwan filed another stay of execution on 1 Oct, but the court dismissed it on 3 Oct. His execution was duly carried out on 4 Oct.
Factually said executions “are only scheduled when a prisoner has exhausted all rights of appeal and the clemency process”.
However, some inmates “have repeatedly filed last-minute applications to prevent the punishment from being carried out”, it added, noting:
Whether a stay of execution should be granted is decided by the Courts. Any last-minute stay of execution is therefore a result of the prisoner’s own decision to file applications late.
They are not decided arbitrarily by the Government, Factually said, refuting social media allegations by the Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) and activist Kokila Annamalai.
The Minister for Home Affairs has thus instructed the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) Office to issue Correction Directions to TJC and Ms Kokila, requiring them to insert a notice against their original social media posts with a link to the Government’s clarification.
A Targeted Correction Direction will also be issued to TikTok, requiring it to communicate a correction notice to all end-users in Singapore that had accessed TJC’s post.
Also read: 45-year-old S’porean executed for drug trafficking on 2 Aug, presidential clemency not granted
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Featured image adapted from Transformative Justice Collective on Facebook and Tamara Gore on Unsplash.
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