Singapore hanged a convicted drug dealer on Friday, authorities said, in the state’s second execution.
A 45-year-old man was executed in Changi Prison for trafficking 36.93g of pure heroin, more than double the 15g that deserves the death penalty in the country’s tough state, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said. Human rights groups have declined to provide details about the suspect and his sentence, as the family has requested privacy.
He was given due process under the law and was represented by counsel during the process, CNB said in a statement released on Friday evening. The man was convicted and sentenced to death in February 2019, and his legal appeal and plea for clemency were rejected, CNB added.
In February, a 35-year-old Bangladeshi man, Ahmed Salim, was hanged for the murder of his ex-partner in Singapore. Friday’s execution brings the number of executions to 18 since Singapore resumed executions in March 2022, according to an AFP report.
The country has already ended a two-year lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. The United Nations, human rights groups and other opponents of the death penalty say the penalty has no proven deterrent effect and have called for its abolition.
Singaporean officials insist that it has helped make the country one of the safest places in Asia.
The Philippines and Japan held their first joint military exercise in the South China Sea on Friday, the Philippine military said, in a new alliance between the two countries pushing back against China’s territorial claims.
The exercise, which took place in the special economic zone of the Philippines, follows a similar exercise between Manila and Washington on Wednesday. The operation is part of ongoing efforts to strengthen regional and international cooperation to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said in a statement.
The Philippines and Japan, both US allies, signed a historic military accord last month authorizing the deployment of troops to each other’s territory. China claims as its territory a large part of the South China Sea, the communication route of many Northeast Asian trade routes with the rest of the world, including Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also claims the area.
Japan, which last year announced its largest military buildup since World War II, is moving away from a post-war peace, with nothing to say about the busy waterways. But it has a separate water dispute with China in the East China Sea, where the neighbors frequently clash.
The latest exercise, involving two ships from each side, includes communications exercises, maneuvers and photo exercises, AFP said.
