According to officials, Singapore killed a prisoner charged with conspiracy to smuggle one kilogram of weed on Wednesday, defying global pleas for the city-state to abolish death punishment.

Despite a plea from the United Nations Human Rights Office for Singapore to "urgently rethink" the execution and calls to postpone it from British industrialist Richard Branson, the execution went forward.

Singaporean Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, was executed today in Changi Prison Complex, according to a spokeswoman for the Singapore Prisons Service.

PHOTO | COURTESY Singapore hangs man

Tangaraju was convicted in 2017 of conspiracy by participating in a plot to transport" 1kg of cannabis, more than double the quantity required for a death sentence in the country. Tangaraju was sentenced to death, and the Court of Appeal maintained the judgment.

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Tangaraju did not have drugs at the time of his detention, according to Richard Branson, a member of the Geneva-based Global Commission on Drug Policy, who wrote on his blog on Monday that Singapore may be about to execute an innocent man.

Tangaraju's guilt was proven beyond a reasonable doubt on Tuesday, according to Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry.

The government stated that two mobile phone numbers belonging to him were used to organize the delivery of the medications.

Cannabis has been decriminalized in many parts of the world, notably neighbouring Thailand, with authorities abandoning prison sentences. Rights groups have pressured Singapore to eliminate capital punishment.

The Asian Financial Centre has some of the harshest anti-narcotics legislation in the world, and the death penalty remains an effective deterrent to drug trafficking, according to officials.

PHOTO | COURTESY victims family

On the other hand, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights disagrees. Tangaraju's family asked for clemency while also asking for a retrial.

The Wednesday execution was the city-state's first in six months and the 12th since last year.

After over two years of not conducting hangings, Singapore resumed executions in March 2022.

Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was among those hanged, and his execution sparked international outrage, particularly from the United Nations and Branson, because he was thought to have a mental disability.

According to the United Nations, the death penalty is an ineffective global deterrent. It is incompatible with international human rights legislation, allowing capital punishment only for serious offences.