Singapore to hang Malaysian man, as activists press for halt to the death penalty

SINGAPORE is scheduled to carry out a death sentence this week for a Malaysian man convicted of trafficking heroin, activists said Monday, renewing pressure for a halt to capital punishment in the city-state.

Datchinamurthy Kataiah, 39, would become the third Malaysian national and the 11th person to be hanged in Singapore this year if the execution proceeds. His family said a notice arrived Sunday indicating the hanging would take place on Thursday at Changi Prison, according to Kokila Annamalai of the Transformative Collective Justice, which advocates for abolishing the death penalty in Singapore. Datchinamurthy was arrested in 2011 and later convicted of trafficking about 45 grams (1.6 ounces) of heroin. He was slated for execution in 2022 but was granted a last-minute reprieve while a legal challenge proceeded; that challenge was dismissed by a court in August.

Image: Datchinamurthy Kataiah case

Singapore’s drug laws require the death penalty for anyone caught with more than 15 grams of heroin and 500 grams of cannabis. Critics say the policy disproportionately targets low-level traffickers and couriers. At a joint news conference conducted via video link with Amnesty International Malaysia and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, Kokila read a letter from Datchinamurthy’s sister, Rani, who traveled to Singapore to be with him. The letter said her brother does not request mercy for himself but believes the death penalty is “too harsh and extreme for a young man’s naive action.”

The activist groups and about 30 civil society organizations released a joint statement reiterating calls to halt executions. They noted that three other Malaysians and a Singaporean man—a range of drug-offense cases spanning seven to 10 years—had recently lost appeals and faced imminent executions. The note underscored ongoing regional concerns about how capital punishment is applied.

Singapore’s Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, had previously advised President Tharman Shanmugaratnam to show clemency to a Singaporean on death row for drug trafficking. The president’s decision to commute that sentence to life in prison last month marked the first such clemency since 1998 and organizers said it demonstrated that policy change is possible. The groups urged neighboring Malaysia, which chairs ASEAN, to take steps to protect its citizens who are vulnerable to drug syndicates.

Malaysia abolished the mandatory death penalty in 2023, replacing capital punishment with prison terms of 30 to 40 years. Amnesty International’s 2024 global report said Malaysia commuted more than 1,000 death sentences last year. By contrast, Amnesty said Singapore doubled its executions from five in 2023 to nine in the following year, with six carried out over a two-month span. More than 40 people remain on Singapore’s death row. Amnesty also noted that the Asia-Pacific region holds the largest share of the world’s executions, but secrecy and restrictive state practices in China, Vietnam and North Korea hinder precise global tallies.