Singapore – Masoud Rahimi Mehrzad’s father was once in a far off a part of Iran when he gained the scoop that he had lengthy dreaded.
His son was once to be hanged in Singapore’s Changi Jail.
Affected by deteriorating condition and with only a year’s realize till the execution at crack of dawn on November 29, he was once not able to remove at the difficult travel to look his son in individual for one final pace, in keeping with studies.
Rather, the overall touch between the daddy and son got here by means of a long-distance telephone name.
Regardless of a last-ditch prison problem, Masoud was once hanged at the ultimate Friday of November, greater than 14 years nearest he was once first arrested for drug offences.
Masoud, 35, changed into the 9th individual to be hanged in Singapore this yr.
“With four executions in November alone, the Singaporean government is relentlessly pursuing its cruel use of the death penalty,” mentioned Bryony Lau, Deputy Director for Asia at Human Rights Keep an eye on.
Anti-death penalty marketing campaign teams imagine that about 50 inmates are these days on loss of life row in Singapore.
Regardless of opposition from human rights teams and United Countries professionals, Singapore claims that capital punishment has been “an effective deterrent” in opposition to drug traffickers and guarantees the city-state is “one of the safest places in the world”.
A bunch of UN professionals mentioned in a joint remark final life that Singapore will have to “move from a reliance on criminal law and take a human rights-based approach in relation to drug use and drug use disorders”.
Tales of the plight of loss of life row inmates most often come from activists, who paintings tirelessly to battle for the rights of the ones dealing with the closing punishment.
The new tide of executions has now left them shaken.
“It’s a nightmare,” says Kokila Annamalai, a anti-death penalty campaigner with the Transformative Justice Collective (TJC).
Her paintings has led her to method a akin bond with many loss of life row prisoners.
“They’re more than just people we are campaigning for. They’re also our friends, they feel like our siblings. It’s been very difficult for us personally,” Annamalai informed Al Jazeera.
‘Losing another son, he couldn’t settle for it’
Like nearly all of Singapore’s prisoners on loss of life row, Masoud was once convicted for drug offences.
Born in Singapore to an Iranian father and Singaporean mom, he had spent his adolescence between Iran and Dubai.
On the pace of 17, he returned to Singapore to finish his obligatory nationwide provider and it was once all over this era in his era that he was once arrested on drug fees.
In Would possibly 2010, elderly 20, he drove to satisfy a Malaysian guy at a petroleum station in central Singapore. Masoud took a package deal from the person, earlier than using away. He was once quickly cancelled by way of the police. They searched the package deal and a few alternative luggage that they discovered within the automotive.
In overall, officials came upon greater than 31 grams of diamorphine, which is sometimes called heroin, and 77 grams of methamphetamine.
Masoud was once arrested for possessing medication with the aim of trafficking.
Underneath Singapore’s strict regulations, any person stuck wearing greater than 15 grams of heroin can face the loss of life penalty.
Masoud informed police that he was once affected by post-traumatic pressure sickness and nervousness. He additionally blamed an unlawful money-lending syndicate for planting the medicine to deliver to border him.
His defence didn’t rise up in court docket and he was once sentenced to loss of life in 2015.
Masoud’s sister, Mahnaz, absolved an visible letter in a while earlier than her brother was once hanged final life. She described the ache that the loss of life sentence had inflicted on their father.
“My dad was completely heartbroken, and he has never recovered. One of my brothers died when he was 7 years old, from appendicitis … losing another son, he couldn’t accept it,” she wrote.
Masoud had fought tirelessly to charm his conviction, however his diverse prison demanding situations failed, as did a plea for clemency to Singapore’s President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
Sooner than his personal execution, Masoud’s sister recounted how her brother had devoted his pace on loss of life row to serving to alternative prisoners with their very own prison battles.
“He’s very invested in helping them find peace,” Mahnaz mentioned.
“He feels it’s his responsibility to fight for his life as well as the others, and he wishes for everyone on death row to feel the same motivation, to be there for each other,” she mentioned.
‘People start to care deeply’
In October, Masoud was once considered one of 13 loss of life row prisoners who received a case in opposition to the Singapore Jail Provider and the Lawyer Normal ‘s Chambers, nearest they had been deemed to have acted unlawfully by way of disclosing and inquiring for the non-public letters of prisoners.
The court docket additionally discovered that the prisoners’ proper to confidentiality were breached.
Masoud was once additionally because of constitute a gaggle of 31 prisoners in a constitutional problem in opposition to a brandnew legislation in the case of the post-appeal procedure in loss of life penalty instances. A listening to in that prison problem continues to be scheduled for past due January 2025, a occasion this is now too past due for Masoud.
Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau mentioned the truth that Masoud’s execution was once performed in exit of the nearest top court docket listening to was once “not relevant to his conviction or sentence”.
Next a two-year relaxation because of the COVID-19 pandemic, executions have ramped up in recent times within the Southeast Asian finance hub.
In keeping with information studies, 25 prisoners had been performed in Singapore since 2022, with the government appearing modest probability of softening their way to capital punishment for drug traffickers.
Anti-death penalty campaigners within the city-state proceed to tonality their outrage on the executive’s movements, the use of social media to magnify the private tales of loss of life row prisoners.
Alternatively, they’ve began to obtain “correction orders” from executive government, which might be issued below Singapore’s arguable pretend information legislation.
Annamalai’s TJC staff has been focused with the legislation – the Coverage from On-line Falsehoods and Manipulation Office (POFMA) – over a number of posts in the case of loss of life row instances.
The marketing campaign staff has been steered to incorporate a “correction notice” with their latest posts and likewise percentage an internet hyperlink to a central authority website online, for additional explanation.
“It’s always a story of a prisoner facing imminent execution that gets POFMA’d”, Annamalai mentioned.
Describing those tales of particular person prisoners as “the most powerful”, Annamalai says the crowd has been in particular focused as a result of “people start to care deeply and want to take action when they read them”.
‘Trying to silence us’
Rights teams have accident out on the government’ contemporary focused on of activist teams.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the continued intimidation and climate of fear that the authorities have created around anti-death penalty activism in Singapore and demand that the harassment of activists ceases at once,” seven anti-death penalty teams mentioned in a joint remark in October.
Elizabeth Plank, CEO of the Capital Punishment Justice Venture, based totally in Melbourne, Australia, and probably the most seven signatories to the letter, mentioned that the ones combating to finish executions are being forged as “glorifying” drug traffickers.
“They announced that they would be creating a day of remembrance for the victims of drugs. That’s another means to accuse activists of glorifying and trying to humanise drug traffickers,” Plank mentioned.
Human Rights Keep an eye on’s Lau mentioned the “Singaporean government should not use its repressive and overly broad laws to attempt to silence anti-death penalty activists”.
Singapore’s Ministry of House Affairs declined an interview request from Al Jazeera.
In a contemporary remark, the House Affairs Ministry mentioned they “do not target, silence and harass organisations and individuals simply for speaking out against the death penalty”.
Annamalai of TJC mentioned she is going to proceed her activism, regardless of dealing with a POFMA correction sequence for a submit on her non-public Fb web page.
Even though dealing with the chance of a wonderful or perhaps a jail sentence, Annamalai mentioned she is not going to build a correction.
“They’re aggressively and desperately trying to silence us, but they will not succeed,” she added.