A joint statement by several organisations urging an end to the death penalty as two executions for drug-related offences are set to take place this week.

Collectively known as Los Chapitos, the four siblings were once mocked by adversaries as entitled princelings more concerned with flashing their wealth than the grubby work of moving tons of cocaine into the US.

Interpol issued a red notice for Strangio in 2016 over the sale of 160kg of marijuana and links to Italy's 'Ndrangheta' organised crime syndicate, police say.

G Punithan had been sentenced to death in May 2020, the first to be handed the penalty during the Covid-19 pandemic via remote hearing.

The International Commission of Jurists says the punitive cost orders against lawyers representing death row inmates have obstructed the prisoners' access to justice.

Slapped with a number of charges, the thirty-something lawyer fears that he will not receive a fair trial in the city-state.

The prisoners in a suit that could stay the execution of their fellow inmates waited for 10 hours only to be told that it was an abuse of process.

The judge says the cost orders slapped on those who represented death row prisoners are justified, and that lawyers might have 'perfectly valid' reasons for refusing to take up such cases.

It says there is a growing consensus for the universal abolition of the death penalty.

Today's was the first of two double executions planned ahead of Singapore's National Day celebration on Aug 9.

This is the first time that so many inmates have come together to sue the government amid a wave of executions in the city-state.

The city-state is preparing to execute four prisoners in the coming week, a record of sorts matched only by the recent hangings in Myanmar.