He is one of a rising number of death row inmates who must represent themselves after their appeal because they do not have access to a lawyer, activists say.
Suppiah was sentenced to death in 2018 after a judge found he owned a phone number used to coordinate the trade of one kilogram of cannabis. He will be executed for this on Wednesday.
No counselor or interpreter and no lawyer
Last November, when Tangaraju filed a request to review its case after a failed appeal, he represented himself in court. Activists raised several concerns about the handling of his case. According to them, he was only questioned in English without a lawyer or interpreter, while he only speaks Tamil, a language that is spoken in Singapore and India, among others.
Kirsten Han, a journalist and activist with Transformative Justice Collective, a group calling for reform of Singapore’s justice system, said it had become “almost impossible” to find a local lawyer to handle death penalty cases after the appeal to deal with.
Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau says Tangaraju “has been treated in full accordance with the law and has had access to a lawyer throughout the process”. Claims that he had asked for an interpreter and had been refused were first raised during his cross-examination and found “insincere” by the judge.
LOOK. First transgender woman to receive death penalty in US
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss a thing of the stars.