9621 Agnes Crossing, Lake Suzanneview, New Mexico Island 84604-9295.
Although Leela’s brother, Thangaraju Suppia (“Appu”), is due to be hanged in just 24 hours for complicity in 1kg marijuana trafficking in Singapore, neither she nor the prisoner
Although Leela’s brother, Thangaraju Suppia (“Appu”), is due to be hanged in just 24 hours for complicity in 1kg marijuana trafficking in Singapore, neither she nor the prisoner lose hope that there will be a twist in the script. the case was convicted for its violations.
“He really believes and really hopes that presidential pardon save your life. It remains positive,” he says. EFE Leela, who has been visiting her brother in Changi prison every day since the Singaporean authorities set a date for his execution a week ago: tomorrow, April 26.
Thangaraju, a 46-year-old Singaporean of Tamil origin. sentenced to death in 2017 for “participating in a conspiracy to transport” 1 kilogram of marijuana from Malaysia to Singapore four years earlier, although he and his lawyers say he has never seen or touched the drugs and was implicated by third parties in a telephone exchange, whose contents were also not presented in court.
A marijuana user since his teenage years, Leela says “Appu” grew up in a humble family and spent his youth in juvenile correctional facilities and prison. This happened after the arrest for failure to appear at drug control while on probation when he was implicated in the case.
“Even his lawyer advised him not to plead guilty, so his sentence would be reduced to 12 years. jailseeing that the evidence was so weak,” his sister laments.
But the strategy did not work, and the 2017 death sentence was upheld by another court in late 2022, after the last possible appeal.
Tormented by his attempts to explore every possible avenue to stop her now, including a letter pleading for mercy sent on Sunday to the police.Singaporean Halima YacobLeela pleads for justice and insists on her brother’s innocence.
However, presidential pardons are rare. Singapore: last dated 1998, in a murder case, according to the registry Transformative Justice Collective (TJC), an island non-governmental organization calling for the abolition of the death penalty.
“We are used to seeing acts of injustice, but with this we are shocked at how weak the evidence is and how easy it is to send someone to the gallows,” he says. EFE Kokila Annamalai, spokeswoman for the said NGO, who accompanies Lila in the interview.
Cosmopolitan Singapore has one of drug laws the most draconian on the planet, and provides for the death penalty for at least 500 grams marijuana traffickingin stark contrast to the increased legalization of cannabis in several countries, including neighboring Thailand.
The island’s authorities defend the death penalty as an “essential component” of their judicial system and as a guarantee of curbing consumption, which casts doubt on NGOs, and broke records last year with eleven executions. executions of drug traffickersincluding a prisoner with intellectual disabilities, despite criticism from the UN.
Barring last-minute changes, Thangaraju will be the first to be executed in 2023, with the hanging taking place on the appointed day at dawn and surrounded by secrecy.
Apart from his family and TJC, NGOs such as Amnesty International (AI) joined the call to stop the execution: “His death sentence was passed in violation of the rights and standards of international law, which makes it arbitrary and illegal,” denounces AI in a letter to Prime Minister Li Xian. Lung.
EFE
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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