Singapore hangs a courier for one kilogram of cannabis
Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj, 46, was executed for importing 1,009 grams of cannabis. The court found he had only carried the drugs, but Singapore's law left the judge no sentence other than death.
🇸🇬 Singapore · Singapore
- Cannabis
- 1 kg
- Deaths
- 1
Singapore executed Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj, 46, on 16 April 2026 for importing 1,009 grams of cannabis.[1] Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, importing more than 500 grams carries a mandatory death sentence.[1] The court classified him as a courier who had only transported the drugs.[1] A courier can escape death only if prosecutors certify that he gave “substantive assistance” against trafficking networks; no such certificate was issued, so the judge had no other sentence to give.[1] His appeals were dismissed.[1]
His family
He had been in prison since 2018.[1] His wife, Alexandra Maria Piel, wrote to President Tharman Shanmugaratnam from Germany, where adults may legally have cannabis since 2024, to ask for clemency.[1] She called Germany’s legalisation imperfect but said it was “worlds away” from the punishment her husband faced.[1]
Protests
The day before the execution, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Capital Punishment Justice Project and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network asked Singapore to halt it and to commute death sentences for drug offences.[1] The European Union, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom made the same call, saying there is no conclusive evidence that the death penalty deters drug crime.[1]
Part of a rising number
Singapore carried out 15 executions for drug offences in 2025, and 8 by April 2026.[1] From 2022 to 2025, drug cases made up between 88 and 100 per cent of all executions in the country.[1] In August 2025 the president granted clemency in a capital drug case for the first time since 1998, to a man convicted over methamphetamine.[1]
Sources
- Singapore Executes Man for Cannabis Importation Amid Rising Drug-Related Executions. Death Penalty Information Center, 23 April 2026. Archived copy.