Singapore Must Urgently Halt Execution Of Drug Offender: UN Experts

GENEVA (20 November 2024) – Singapore must urgently halt the execution of Rosman bin Abdullah, who has a record of psychosocial disabilities, on drug-trafficking charges, a group of UN experts said today.

Abdullah’s execution has been scheduled at dawn on Friday, 22 November 2024.

“We are gravely concerned that Mr. Rosman bin Abdullah does not appear to have had access to procedural accommodations, including individualised assistance, for his disability during his interrogation or trial,” the experts said.

Rosman bin Abdullah was given a mandatory death sentence in 2010 for drug trafficking despite evidence presented about his psychosocial disabilities and history of drug dependence.

The experts have been in touch with the Government about this case including with a letter in 2022 to which the Government replied.

“Resorting to this type of punishment to prevent drug trafficking is not only illegal under international law, it is also ineffective. There is a lack of any persuasive evidence that the death penalty contributes more than any other punishment to curbing or preventing drug trafficking,” the experts said.

“There is a need to move from a reliance on criminal law and to take a human rights-based approach in relation to drug use and drug use disorders,” they added.

Under Singaporean law, drug trafficking offences carry the mandatory death sentence with only narrow exceptions. “Such sentences are inherently over-inclusive and unavoidably violate human rights law,” the experts said.

“States that have not yet abolished the death penalty may only impose capital punishment for the ‘most serious crimes’,” they said. “Under international law, only crimes of extreme gravity involving intentional killing can be considered as ‘most serious’. Drug offences clearly do not meet this threshold.”

If carried out, Abdullah’s execution would be the eighth in Singapore this year.

“We urgently call on the Singaporean authorities to halt the execution of Mr. Rosman bin Abdullah and commute his death sentences to imprisonment consistent with international human rights law and standards,” the experts said.

* The experts: Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; Matthew Gillett (Chair-Rapporteur), Ganna Yudkivska (Vice-Chair on Communications), Miriam Estrada-Castillo, and Mumba Malila;, Working Group on arbitrary detention

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