FILE – The Merlion statue with the background of the central business district in Singapore, Saturday, September 21, 2019. A Singaporean, Abdul Kahar Othman, 68, on death row for drug trafficking was hanged on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 , in the first execution in the city-state in more than two years, rights activists said. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)
SINGAPORE — A Singaporean on death row for drug trafficking was hanged on Wednesday in the first execution in the city-state in more than two years, human rights activists said.
Singapore, which has tough drug laws, halted executions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and last imposed the death penalty in November 2019.
Abdul Kahar Othman, 68, was hanged early on Wednesday, said anti-death penalty campaigner Kirsten Han. The execution took place despite calls from human rights activists, including the UN human rights office, to commute Kahar’s sentence to life imprisonment. Han and several others held a small vigil outside the prison on Tuesday evening for Kahar.
Kahar, who came from a poor family and had struggled with drug addiction since his teens, spent more time behind bars than as a free man, Han said. He was released from prison in 2005 after a decade of preventive detention. In 2013, Kahar was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death two years later.
