Malaysian drug trafficker hanged in Singapore

SINGAPORE: Two convicted drug traffickers were hanged for their offences at Changi Prison Complex on Friday.

The two men were Chijioke Stephen Obioha, a 38-year-old Nigerian, and Devendran A/L Supramaniam, a 31-year-old Malaysian, said the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in a statement.

Obioha, who said he came here in 2005 to try out for a football club, was arrested in April 2007 by anti-narcotics officers who found 14 blocks of vegetable matter in the bag he had with him. The officers escorted him to his rental flat and found another 14 blocks in various bags.

Obioha was convicted of trafficking 2,604.56g of cannabis here and sentenced to death on Dec 30, 2008. The Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA) provides for the death penalty if the amount of cannabis trafficked is 500g or more.

After his appeal against conviction and sentence was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in 2010, Obioha elected to be considered for re-sentencing in May 2015, under the new death penalty regime that came into effect at the start of 2013. He subsequently withdrew his re-sentencing application in April this year.

His counsel filed a criminal motion in court for a stay of execution and to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment on Wednesday (Nov 16), which was heard and dismissed the following day.

His petition to the President for clemency was also turned down.

Devendran was arrested at Woodlands Checkpoint in May 2011 carrying six packets of granular and powdery substances in his motorcycle, which were found to contain 83.36g of diamorphine.

He was convicted of importing not less than 83.36g of diamorphine into Singapore, an offence under section 7 of the MDA, and sentenced to death on July 29, 2014.

His appeal against conviction and sentence was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in May 2015.

His counsel filed two criminal motions in court for a stay of execution and to re-open his appeal on Thursday (Nov 17), which were heard and dismissed the same day. His petition to the President for clemency was also turned down.

The CNB said both men had been "accorded full due process under the law". – The Straits Times/Asia News Network