Singapore’s death penalty in the spotlight after court puts man’s execution on hold

Syed Suhail Syed Zin was to be hanged last week for drug trafficking, but Covid-19 border closures meant his relatives in Malaysia could not visit him a final time

The top court on Tuesday extended his reprieve, as his lawyer argued that the prison’s move to send Syed’s personal letters to prosecutors had jeopardised his case

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A combination of photos of Syed Suhail Syed Zin. Photo: Facebook

Published: 9:41pm, 22 Sep 2020Updated: 2:45pm, 23 Sep 2020

Singapore’s top court on Tuesday extended a reprieve that had been granted to a convicted drug trafficker facing the death penalty, following a last-ditch legal manoeuvre in a case that has sparked sharp scrutiny of the city state’s retention of the capital punishment.

Syed Suhail Syed Zin, 44, was initially scheduled to be hanged last Friday following a 2015 conviction for trafficking 38.84 grams of heroin in 2011 – which activists believe would have made him the first person in Singapore to be executed amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Court of Appeal – comprising Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Supreme Court Justices Andrew Phang and Judith Prakash – convened on Tuesday to hear arguments by human rights lawyer M. Ravi, who filed a judicial review application last Wednesday.

The High Court granted Syed a stay of execution following the application.

Following Tuesday’s open court session, which lasted nearly three hours, Menon told Ravi and the prosecutors to file their submissions within seven days, with the next hearing scheduled to be held not before October 7.