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SINGAPORE EXECUTES TWO NIGERIANS
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SINGAPORE executed two Nigerians on drug trafficking charges despite pleas for clemency by Nigeria's president, the Top of Form United Nations and human rights groups.
Nigerian Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, 21, was hanged at dawn in the city-state after being convicted of trafficking 727 grams of heroin _ nearly 50 times the 15 grams that draws a mandatory death penalty in Singapore _ the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement.
Okeke Nelson Malachy, a 35-year-old stateless African, who was convicted as the person to whom Iwuchukwu was supposed to deliver the drugs, was also executed Friday, the statement said. |
About a dozen activists held an overnight vigil outside maximum-security Changi Prison, where the execution was carried out. Just before the hanging, they stood or sat with their heads bowed, holding roses in the flickering glow of candles on the ground around photos of Iwuchukwu and a red-and-white soccer jersey said to be his.
The execution was carried out despite appeals by Amnesty International, the United Nations and Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo, who asked Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong week to commute the death sentence.
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