Singaporeans protest against city’s ‘brutal’ death penalty in rare demonstration

Authorities last week conducted the country’s first execution since 2019, when they hanged a drug trafficker

Organisers said about 400 people joined the demonstration at a downtown park, the only place in the city where protests are allowed without police approval

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Attendees hold signs during a protest against the death penalty in Singapore. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:45pm, 3 Apr 2022Updated: 9:47pm, 3 Apr 2022

Hundreds of protesters in tightly controlled Singapore staged a rare demonstration against the death penalty Sunday as fears grow the city state is set to carry out a wave of hangings.

Authorities last week conducted the country’s first execution since 2019, when they hanged a drug trafficker. Several other death row convicts recently had appeals rejected.

Organisers said about 400 people joined the demonstration at “Speakers’ Corner” in a downtown park, the only place in the city state where protests are allowed without prior police approval.

An activist wears a T-shirt with a sign protesting against the death penalty. Photo: AFP

They held signs reading “Capital punishment does not make us safer”, and “Don’t kill in our names”, and chanted slogans against the death penalty.

“Capital punishment is a brutal system that makes brutes of us all,” Kirsten Han, a prominent local activist, said in an address to the crowd.

“Instead of pushing us to address inequalities and exploitative and oppressive systems that leave people marginalised and unsupported, it makes us the worst version of ourselves.”

Attendees hold signs during a protest against the death penalty at Speakers’ Corner in Singapore. Photo: AFP

Protests are unusual in Singapore, which frequently faces criticism for curbing civil liberties.