(MENAFN) Singapore executed three individuals last week for drug-related offenses, raising the total number of executions this year to 17—the highest since 2003. These executions come just days before a constitutional challenge to the mandatory death penalty for drugs is scheduled to be heard.

Singapore enforces some of the strictest anti-drug laws globally, which officials describe as vital to deterring drug-related crime. Convictions for trafficking certain amounts of narcotics—15g of diamorphine, 30g of cocaine, 250g of methamphetamine, or 500g of cannabis—carry a mandatory death sentence.

Seven activists filing the constitutional challenge argue that the law violates rights to life and equal protection, as enshrined in the constitution, which states that "no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty save in accordance with law."

"Singapore's barbaric drug control regime is increasingly alone on the world stage," a local activist group said, noting the country is among a few that continue to execute people for drug offenses. The government, however, contends that abolishing the death penalty could lead to higher crime rates, more violence, and drug-related deaths, including those of innocent children.

As Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam stated earlier this year: "As policy makers, we set aside our personal feelings, and do what is necessary to protect the majority of people.. we cannot be at peace with ourselves, if we take a step which leads to many more innocent people dying in Singapore."

Among those executed was Saminathan Selvaraju, a logistics driver convicted of transporting 301.6g of diamorphine from Malaysia to Singapore on 21 November 2013. Saminathan maintained that he had driven the vehicle earlier in the day but was not present when the drugs entered Singapore, pointing out that multiple drivers used the same trailer. Investigators found pre-written immigration cards with his signature in the vehicle, which he disputed. The judge rejected his defense, and he was hanged on Thursday.

Saminathan had previously filed a constitutional challenge in 2022 with three others on death row, challenging presumptions in Singapore’s drug laws that automatically classify someone found with large quantities of narcotics as a trafficker, unless proven otherwise, or assume possession if a person holds keys to a place where drugs are found. Singapore’s highest court dismissed this challenge in August, stating that the law was designed "to address a problem that is thought to be a scourge on society."

Clemency pleas submitted to the president by Saminathan and the others were rejected in September, as is typical in Singapore.

Critics argue that the death penalty disproportionately punishes low-level smugglers from marginalized communities while failing to target major drug traffickers. Lawyer Mervyn Cheong, who has defended death row prisoners, said it is difficult to "reconcile why mandatory death sentences must apply to murder or certain drug-related offences, when perpetrators of more egregious international crimes do not face the same penalty." Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the maximum punishment for the gravest crimes, such as genocide and war crimes, is life imprisonment.

The European Union’s delegation to Singapore criticized the executions as a "significant increase in the use of capital punishment" and said, "Imposing the death penalty for drug offences is incompatible with international law, as these offences do not meet the threshold of 'most serious crimes.'" The EU added that the punishment eliminates any possibility of rehabilitation.

The Singaporean government maintains that the death penalty has contributed to making the country one of the safest in the world, applying the sentence only to crimes that involve "the most serious forms of harms to victims and to society." A 2023 survey commissioned by the ministry indicated that about 69% of citizens and permanent residents agreed that the death penalty is appropriate for trafficking significant quantities of drugs.

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