A Ghanaian national, Billy Agbozo was executed on Friday, March 9 in Singapore after he was convicted of trafficking drugs.
39-year-old Agbozo was found guilty by a court and sentenced to death in July 2016 for smuggling 1.63kg of methamphetamine.
Singapore’s laws on drugs are among the toughest in the world, hence it records a low prevalence of drug abuse worldwide.
The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for the death penalty if the amount of methamphetamine trafficked is more than 250g.
However, according to the same Misuse of Drugs Act 2012, defendants may be spared the death penalty if they are found to have been involved only in transporting, sending or delivering a prohibited substance(as “couriers”), and if the Public Prosecutor can certify that they cooperated with the Central Narcotics Bureau to disrupt further drug-related activities.
Agbozo travelled by plane from Accra to Dubai on April 4, 2013, before boarding another plane to Singapore. He arrived in Singapore the next day and planned to spend five nights.
His luggage was screened at the checkpoint and was arrested shortly after officials at the checkpoint noticed that the inner plastic casing of his suitcase contained white crystalline substances(1.63kg of methamphetamine) estimated at a street value of about $136,000.
Although he pleaded for Presidential clemency it was turned down and his plea against his conviction was dismissed by a Court in February 2017.
Agbozo’s execution brings to a total of 19, the number of executions carried out in Singapore since the coming into force of the legislative reforms.
