The scheduling of execution for a delivery driver from Singapore marks the nation’s third execution in just two weeks.
In 2019, the high court found him guilty of delivering drugs and sentenced him to the death penalty.
Singapore has scheduled his execution for 3 Aug, according to the Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) on Facebook.
This week, Singapore executed a 56-year-old man for drug trafficking on Wednesday (26 July).
Additionally, a 45-year-old woman, Saridewi Djamani, is scheduled for execution today (28 July).
The Straits Times (ST) reported in 2019 that police first arrested the man in 2016.
On 11 Aug 2016, a Malaysian man handed three round, irregular bundles wrapped in brown paper to him.
In exchange, the latter passed the former the S$7,000 he had received from the arranger of the delivery.
The latter, a delivery driver, then travelled by car to the delivery destination at Mei Ling Street. CNB officers who had tailed him arrested him there.
Source: Google Maps. Image for illustration purposes only.
Meanwhile, the authorities arrested the Malaysian man at Woodlands Checkpoint.
Inside the bundles were around 54g of diamorphine, better known as heroin.
If found guilty, those who traffic over 15g of diamorphine face the death penalty per the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Throughout the trial, the delivery driver maintained that he believed he was delivering contraband cigarettes for his friend, ‘Bai’.
He claimed that he owed the latter over S$7,000 and that the delivery would offset some of his debt.
Furthermore, he stated that he did not check the contents of the bundles as he trusted Bai.
However, the court cast doubt on the claim of strong trust.
High Court Judge Hoo Sheau Peng noted that the delivery driver did not know basic details about Bai, including his real name.
The delivery driver also alleged that he had left the bundles inside the plastic bag and did not see them.
However, CNB’s senior staff sergeant Tay Keng Chye testified that he found the bundles beside the plastic bag, exposed on the floorboard of the car.
Additionally, Justice Hoo said that the irregular shape should have raised suspicions.
Although the delivery driver insisted on his belief that repacking could have occurred, Justice Hoo pointed out that Bai had given specific instructions for two-and-a-half cartons of cigarettes.
She found it particularly unlikely that the delivery driver would have gone through with the deal without visually verifying the bundle’s contents.
In explaining her decision, Justice Hoo said that the accused failed to justify his high level of trust in Bai.
She was also “unpersuaded that he relied on the information allegedly given by Bai”.
Though the delivery driver was sentenced in 2019, it was only recently reported that his execution has been scheduled for 3 Aug 2023.
The TJC, a criminal justice reform group, stated that this execution would mark the fifth of its kind this year.
The TJC firmly criticised the decision, saying: “TJC condemns, in the strongest terms, the state’s bloodthirsty streak. We demand an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty”.
Today (28 July), 45-year-old Saridewi Djamani is the first woman to be executed in Singapore since 2004.
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps.
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