Foreign News
Singapore hangs drug trafficker, third such execution in a week
Singapore has carried out its third hanging of a convicted drug trafficker in a week despite appeals for clemency from the United Nations.
Rosman Abdullah, 55, was executed for trafficking 57.43 grams of heroin into the Southeast Asian city-state, Singapore’s drug enforcement agency said on Friday.
Rosman, a Singaporean, was “accorded full due process under the law, and was represented by legal counsel throughout the process,” the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement.
“Capital punishment is imposed only for the most serious crimes, such as the trafficking of significant quantities of drugs which cause very serious harm, not just to individual drug abusers, but also to their families and the wider society,” the CNB added.
UN experts had called on Singaporean authorities to spare Rosman, arguing that the death penalty does little to deter crime and that authorities had not made proper accommodations for his intellectual disabilities.
“We are gravely concerned that Mr. Rosman bin Abdullah does not appear to have had access to procedural accommodations, including individualised assistance, for his disability during his interrogation or trial,” the experts said in a statement released by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday.
Amnesty International had condemned Rosman’s scheduled execution as “chilling” and “extremely alarming”.
Rosman’s hanging at Singapore’s Changi Prison comes exactly a week after the execution of a 39-year-old Malaysian and a 53-year-old Singaporean for drug trafficking.
Despite its reputation as a modern city-state and international business hub, Singapore ranks among only a handful of countries, including China and North Korea, that impose the death penalty for drug offences.
Under the country’s laws, anyone trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis or 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin faces mandatory capital punishment.
Since resuming executions in March 2022 following a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Singaporean authorities have carried out 24 executions, including eight so far this year.
Singapore’s government, which keeps a tight rein on public protest and the media, has defended the death penalty as a deterrent against drug abuse, citing surveys that show most citizens support the law.
[Aljazeera]
Three Americans convicted for their role in a failed coup in Democratic Republic of Congo last year have had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment, the presidency has said.
They were among 37 people sentenced to death last September by a military court.
The three were accused of leading an attack on both the presidential palace and the home of an ally of President Félix Tshisekedi last May.
The overturning of the sentences comes ahead of a visit to DR Congo by the newly appointed US senior advisor for Africa, Massad Boulos.
Boulos, father-in-law to President Donald Trump’s daughter, Tiffany, is expected to arrive in Kinshasa on Thursday on a trip that will also take him to Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.
The US has not declared the three Americans to be wrongfully jailed in DR Congo but the State Department said previously there have been talks between the countries over the matter.
The three were convicted of criminal conspiracy, terrorism and other charges, which they denied.
[BBC]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated a former Navy commander to head the country’s domestic security services, despite the courts having blocked his bid to fire the previous head of Shin Bet.
Netanyahu’s office announced on Monday that he had nominated Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit to lead the agency, which surveils attacks from abroad and at home, including by armed groups based in Palestine and Lebanon. However, a halt to the sacking of Ronen Bar as head of Shin Bet, ordered by the Supreme Court, remains in place.
[Aljazeera]
The Trump administration has deported 17 more alleged gang members to El Salvador, the US state department has said, despite legal battles over removing people to the Central American country’s supermax prison.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the group included members of the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs.
Salvadoran government officials told the BBC they included a mix of Venezuelans and Salvadorans.
Earlier this month a court ordered a halt to deportations carried out under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law previously used only in wartime. However, US media, citing administration sources, reported that the recent deportations were made under general immigration laws.
In a statement, Rubio said the group included “murderers and rapists”, but did not provide names or details of the alleged crimes or of any convictions.
In a post on X, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele shared a dramatically edited video showing shackled men being loaded off a plane and their heads being shaved before they were put into prison cells.
“All individuals are confirmed murderers and high-profile offenders, including six child rapists,” he wrote. “This operation is another step in the fight against terrorism and organized crime.”
President Trump reposted the message, blamed the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden for allowing the deportees into the US and thanked Bukele for “giving them such a wonderful place to live”.
El Salvador has agreed to take in deportees in exchange for $6m (£4.6m).
Family members of some of those who were previously sent to the maximum security prison have denied they have any gang ties.
After Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to remove more than 100 Venezuelans from the US earlier this month, groups including the American Civil Liberties Union filed a legal challenge alleging the administration had illegally denied the immigrants due process.
In a hearing on 15 March, James Boasberg, the top federal judge in Washington DC, imposed a temporary restraining order on the use of the law and ordered deportation flights that were in the air to be turned around.
But the deportations proceeded. The next hearing in the case will be held on Thursday.
[BBC]
Death sentence for three Americans over DR Congo coup attempt overturned
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Cabinet approves providing relief to the people of Myanmar
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