SINGAPORE: Singaporean Tangaraju Suppiah is set to be executed next Wednesday (26 Apr) after he was convicted of abetting an attempt to traffic 1kg of cannabis in 2017 that he never touched, despite maintaining his innocence for the past eight years.
Noted anti-death penalty activist Kokila Annamalai, who serves with the Transformative Justice Collective, said yesterday (19 Apr) that Mr Tangaraju’s sister Leela was informed of her brother’s execution date by the prison and immediately rushed to visit her brother.
Fellow activist Kirsten Han posted a photo of the notice Ms Leela received on Twitter:
Mr Tangaraju was charged and convicted of conspiracy to traffic drugs in 2017 based on the court’s finding that he was the owner of two phone numbers that were used to contact the drug delivery person, even though he never handled the drugs himself.
Mr Tangaraju never touched the drugs he is set to be executed for and has denied the prosecution’s claim that he was the intended recipient of the drugs.
Mr Tangaraju has said that he was interrogated by the police without the presence of a lawyer, and his statement was used as evidence against him. He also told the court that he had asked for a Tamil interpreter during the interrogation, but this was denied.
He also claimed that he informed the inspector that he had lost his phone, but that this was not included in his statement. The inspector denied the claim.
The court’s finding of his intention to traffic was based on the quantity of drugs found with the delivery person. Under Section 12 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, an attempt to traffic carries the same punishment as trafficking.
Mr Tangaraju continues to maintain his innocence, and he filed a Criminal Motion on his own in December 2022, seeking permission to review the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold his conviction. The motion was dismissed on February 26th of this year.
Ms Leela, who has spent the last few years desperately seeking legal help for her brother, has appealed to the public to protest her brother’s execution and she is determined to do everything in her power to save him. She has not seen her beloved brother in many years, and the last photo she has of him is from when he was around 19 years old.
Singapore has not carried out an execution since October 2022, and Mr Tangaraju’s case has reignited the debate over the death penalty in the country. Activists are calling for the government to reconsider its stance on capital punishment and to review cases like Mr Tangaraju’s more carefully.
Ms Kokila said, “We will fight for Tangaraju till the end, and for all the other men and women who wake up every day to the unspeakable horror that they have been sentenced to hang to death at the hands of the state.”