On September 25, 2025, Singapore is set to execute Datchinamurthy Kataiah, a 39-year-old Malaysian national convicted of trafficking about 45 grams (1.6 ounces) of heroin into the city-state. The impending execution, scheduled for Thursday at Changi Prison, has reignited fierce debate over Singapore’s unwavering use of the death penalty for drug-related offenses and drawn renewed calls from activists, regional leaders, and international organizations to halt capital punishment altogether.
Kataiah’s journey to the gallows has been long and fraught with legal twists. Arrested in 2011, he was convicted under Singapore’s notorious Misuse of Drugs Act, which mandates the death penalty for anyone caught with more than 15 grams of heroin or 500 grams of cannabis. Originally set to be hanged in 2022, Kataiah received a last-minute reprieve after launching a constitutional challenge. However, as reported by Amnesty International and the Transformative Justice Collective, his legal avenues were finally exhausted in August 2025 when the court dismissed his appeal, clearing the way for his execution notice, which his family received on September 21.
If carried out, Kataiah’s execution will mark him as the third Malaysian and the eleventh person hanged in Singapore this year—a grim tally that activists say underscores the city-state’s harsh approach to drug offenses. According to Amnesty International’s 2024 global report, Singapore doubled its executions from five in 2023 to nine in 2024, with six of those carried out in just two months. More than 40 prisoners remain on death row, most for drug-related crimes.
Singapore’s government, led by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong since 2024, has shown few signs of budging on its policy. The law’s defenders argue that the mandatory death penalty is a necessary deterrent against drug trafficking in a region plagued by narcotics syndicates. Yet, critics maintain that the law disproportionately punishes low-level couriers and the vulnerable, rather than the masterminds behind the trade. As Kokila Annamalai of the Transformative Justice Collective put it during a joint news conference with Amnesty International Malaysia and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, “The death penalty is too harsh and extreme for a young man’s naive action.”
This sentiment was echoed in a letter from Kataiah’s sister, Rani, who traveled to Singapore to spend time with her brother in his final days. “My brother is not protesting punishment, but he believes the death penalty is too harsh and extreme for a young man’s naive action,” she wrote, as read by Annamalai at the press event.
Kataiah is not alone in his predicament. Four other men—Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, Saminathan Selvaraju, Lingkesvaran Rajendaren, and Jumaat bin Mohamed Sayed—are also at imminent risk of execution, having spent seven to ten years on death row for drug trafficking. Three of them are Malaysians, while Jumaat is Singaporean. All recently lost their final appeals, placing them in immediate danger. According to a joint statement signed by over 30 civil society organizations, including the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network and the Capital Punishment Justice Project, “Individuals on death row in Singapore and their families are only given four to seven days’ notice of their execution.”
The case of Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, in particular, has drawn attention to alleged violations of international human rights standards. Convicted in 2017 of importing 51.84 grams of heroin, Pannir was sentenced to death despite evidence he was a mere courier and had provided information to authorities. Activists argue that Singapore’s refusal to issue him a Certificate of Substantive Assistance—a document that could have spared him from the gallows—exemplifies the arbitrariness of the system. Moreover, his legal journey was hampered by the lack of representation during police interrogation and the denial of legal aid post-appeal. On September 5, 2025, the Singapore Court of Appeal dismissed his latest stay application, even as disciplinary complaints against his former lawyer remained unresolved. In a chilling remark, the court noted that the Law Society of Singapore might need to “preserve” Pannir’s testimony before his execution.
Singapore’s use of legal presumptions in drug cases has also come under fire. Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the burden of proof can shift to the defendant, requiring them to rebut presumptions of possession and knowledge on the balance of probabilities—a standard rejected by courts in jurisdictions like Canada and the United Kingdom. According to the joint statement from rights groups, “Presumptions of guilt effectively undermine fair trial guarantees under international human rights law and violate the right to be presumed innocent.”
Meanwhile, Malaysia, which currently chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has taken a markedly different approach. In 2023, it abolished the mandatory death penalty, replacing it with prison terms of 30 to 40 years and, where applicable, caning. The move has led to more than 1,000 death sentences being commuted, as reported by Amnesty International. Malaysia’s moratorium on executions remains in effect, and the government is commissioning new studies on full abolition. Activists are now urging Malaysia to use its ASEAN chairmanship to advocate for the rights of its citizens facing execution abroad and to push for a regional end to capital punishment. “Malaysia must now go further by extending its advocacy to protect its nationals abroad who remain at risk under Singapore’s harsh and cruel mandatory death penalty regime,” stated the coalition of rights groups.
The Asia-Pacific region continues to lead the world in executions, though secrecy in countries like China, Vietnam, and North Korea makes accurate figures elusive. Still, Singapore’s steadfast commitment to capital punishment is increasingly out of step with regional and international trends. As the joint statement from activists put it, “Singapore is increasingly alone in the region in implementing the mandatory death penalty and carrying out executions for drug trafficking.”
There are glimmers of possible change. In August 2025, Singapore’s Cabinet, under Prime Minister Wong, advised President Tharman Shanmugaratnam to show clemency to a Singaporean death row inmate—a move that resulted in the first commutation of a death sentence to life imprisonment since 1998. Activists see this as proof that reform is possible, even if it remains the exception rather than the rule.
As Kataiah’s execution date looms, activists, legal experts, and families of the condemned are making urgent appeals for mercy, transparency, and reform. Their calls are not just about saving individual lives, but about ending what they see as a cruel and outdated system. Whether Singapore’s leadership will heed these calls remains to be seen, but the global spotlight on Changi Prison this week is a stark reminder that the debate over the death penalty in Southeast Asia is far from settled.
