Execution season in Singapore as another Malaysian set to face hangman at Changi Prison

It is execution season again in Singapore, as three men are scheduled to face the hangman this week, bringing the total number of executions in the city-state to 17 this year.

The three men include Malaysian national Saminathan Selvaraju, who today lost his final bid for a stay of execution.

Sami will be the third Malaysian to be executed by Singapore in two months, following the controversial executions of K Datchinamurthy in September and Pannir Selvam Pranthaman last month.

Sami was working as a lorry driver, transporting goods from Malaysia to Singapore, when he was accused of delivering not less than 301.6 g of diamorphine to his co-accused on Nov 20, 2013.

He was arrested five months later.

During his trial, Sami told the court that he had driven his trailer that day, but not when the drugs were brought into Singapore.

In a moving tribute, prominent Singaporean rights lawyer M Ravi, who once represented Sami, described him as a man of "decent nature" and soft-spoken.

"He thanked people more than he needed to. He carried his troubles lightly, as if he did not want to burden anyone else. And yet, in a few days, the state will take his life," wrote Ravi.

"A human being who once laughed, hoped, and tried to find his place in the world. The death penalty hears none of this. It listens only to the darkest moment, then pretends the rest of the human being never existed.

"There is a particular cruelty in that, the cruelty of reducing a life to a single chapter, the cruelty of deciding that a person cannot grow, cannot change, cannot be more," he added.

The PAP-led Singapore government has defended its spree of executions in recent years, even as neighbouring Malaysia announced a major step to abolish the mandatory death penalty, including for drug offenders.

Critics have pointed out that many of those convicted are drug mules from poor families, while the drug kingpins who employed them often go unpunished.

Earlier this month, in an article published by MalaysiaNow, Pannir Selvam's family revealed shocking acts of threats and deception before he was executed on Oct 8.

The Singapore government then invoked its draconian anti-fake news law on MalaysiaNow, instructing the portal to insert "corrections" to the article.

The portal has rejected the request, saying it does not take instructions from any government.

"We do not take instructions from our own government; what makes them think we would take instructions from them?" said its editor, Abdar Rahman Koya.

The article can be read here.