Singapore court rejects appeals by three men on death row

Trio arrested in 2008 on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to death two years later are considering another appeal

Amnesty International has urged Singapore – which has some of the world’s toughest anti-narcotics laws – to suspend the death penalty

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The Supreme Court of the Republic of Singapore shown in the background. The Supreme Court consists of the Court of Appeal and the High Court and hears both civil and criminal matters. Roy Issa

Published: 7:31pm, 16 Mar 2022

A Singapore court on Wednesday rejected appeals by three men sentenced to death for drugs offences despite criticism from the United Nations and rights campaigners.

Roslan Bakar, a Singaporean, and Pausi Jefridin, from neighbouring Malaysia, were arrested in 2008 on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to death two years later.

The appeal of Singaporean Rosman bin Abdullah was also dismissed.

The city state has some of the world’s toughest anti-narcotics laws and insists capital punishment remains an effective deterrent against crime, despite mounting calls to soften its stance.

High Court Judge Kannan Ramesh, in dismissing the appeals, said no new arguments were raised that were different from earlier pleas that had been rejected, and accused the complainants of abusing the court process.

“In this case, the dominant ‘extraneous purpose’ of the applications is the ulterior intention of delaying the imposition of the sentence of death that was passed on the plaintiffs by disrespecting the finality of the judicial process,” the judge said.

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