Following recent executions in Kuwait and Singapore UN urges moratorium on capital punishment

Kuwait on Thursday executed five persons including a SL drug dealer

The United Nations on Friday denounced the recent executions carried out by Singapore and Kuwait and called for the nations to impose a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty.  

Kuwait said Thursday it executed five prisoners, including a convicted drug dealer from Sri Lanka and an inmate convicted over the bombing of a Shiite mosque in 2015 that killed 27 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.   

Singapore on Friday hanged a 45-year-old citizen for drug trafficking, the city-state’s first execution of a woman in nearly 20 years, officials said.  The multiple executions in the Gulf emirate -- relatively rare compared to neighbouring Saudi Arabia -- were the first since seven people were put to death in November last year ending a five-year moratorium.   
“We deplore the multiple executions carried out this week in Kuwait and Singapore and oppose the death penalty under all circumstances,” UN Human Rights Office spokesman Seif Magango said in a statement.   

“We urge Kuwait and Singapore to immediately establish a moratorium on executions and join the more than 170 states that have so far abolished or introduced a moratorium on the death penalty.”