Iranian Descendants Become Fourth Person Sentenced To Singapore In The Last 3 Weeks

Illustration of hanging punishment. (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Singapore issued a hanging sentence against the defendant Masoud Rahimi Mehrzad, 35, in a drug trafficking case on Friday 29 November.

Citing AFP, this execution is Singapore's fourth suspended sentence in the past three weeks.

Before the hanging law was carried out against Mehrzad, Iran had submitted a request to Singapore to reconsider the execution.

Meanwhile, the United Nations and a number of human rights groups say the death penalty has no deterrent effect and call for the sentence to be abolished.

However, Singaporean officials claim the punishment has helped his country become one of the safest in Asia.

Mehrzad is a Singaporean citizen of Iranian descent. His mother is originally Singaporean, while his father is Iranian.

Defendant Mehrzad has filed an appeal against his verdict and sentence, as well as a clemency petition from the president. However, all of them were rejected.

He also briefly filed an appeal at the last hours to postpone his execution which was rejected by the Court of Appeal on Thursday, November 28.