(Bangkok) – Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who took office in May 2024, has maintained the city-state’s harsh death penalty policies and used repressive laws to crack down on government critics and peaceful protesters, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2025. The authorities have harassed and prosecuted anti-death penalty activists, sought new laws to limit appeals of death sentences, and imposed executions for drug-related offenses in violation of international law.
For the 546-page world report, in its 35th edition, Human Rights Watch reviewed human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In much of the world, Executive Director Tirana Hassan writes in her introductory essay, governments cracked down and wrongfully arrested and imprisoned political opponents, activists, and journalists. Armed groups and government forces unlawfully killed civilians, drove many from their homes, and blocked access to humanitarian aid. In many of the more than 70 national elections in 2024, authoritarian leaders gained ground with their discriminatory rhetoric and policies.
“Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s government has given no sign that it will change its policy on executions, bucking the global trend to abolish capital punishment,” said Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Singapore’s business and trade partners should publicly and privately raise concerns about the city-state’s continued use of the death penalty, and urge the government to urgently impose a moratorium on the inherently cruel practice.”
- On June 27 the authorities investigated, then later charged, three activists under the Public Order Act for organizing a public demonstration on February 2, in which supporters of Palestine delivered letters to the then-prime minister urging him to cut ties with Israel.
- On October 4, the authorities executed Mohamed Azwan bin Bohari for drug trafficking, despite his pending appeal, along with 30 other prisoners, and ignoring a call from the United Nations Human Rights Office to halt the execution. The Central Narcotics Bureau of Singapore stated that four people, including Azwan, were executed for drug-related offenses in 2024. On February 28, the authorities also executed Ahmed Salim, 35, a Bangladeshi national, for murder.
- The government invoked the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act against anti-death penalty activists, including Transformative Justice Collective and Kokila Annamalai, for their reporting on Azwan’s execution, requiring them to post government-determined “corrections” notices. Both had long been targets of government harassment and intimidation.
The Singaporean government should halt the executions of the country’s death-row prisoners and impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty for drug-related crimes and other offenses, as a critical step toward abolition, Human Rights Watch said. The authorities should also stop using the country’s repressive legislation to infringe upon people’s basic rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.