29-2-2024 (SINGAPORE) Singapore has executed Bangladeshi national Ahmed Salim, 35, after his petition for clemency to the President was unsuccessful, according to the Singapore Police Force (SPF). This marks the first judicial execution for murder in the Republic since 2019, as confirmed by a Singapore Prison Service (SPS) spokesperson in response to queries. The execution took place on February 28, 2024.
Ahmed, who worked as a painter, was convicted of strangling Indonesian domestic worker Nurhidayati Wartono Surata at the Golden Dragon Hotel on December 30, 2018. The incident occurred after she refused to end her relationship with another man.
On January 2, 2019, Ahmed was charged with murder and subsequently sentenced to death on December 14, 2020. His appeal against the conviction was dismissed on January 19, 2022.
The SPF stated that Ahmed received full due process under the law and had access to legal counsel throughout the proceedings.
According to statistics from the SPS, the last person executed for murder in Singapore prior to Ahmed’s case was in 2019, when there were two such executions. Four executions took place that year in total.
No judicial executions occurred in 2020 and 2021, with the SPS stating that this was not due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, the execution of an inmate is scheduled only after all relevant legal processes, including any applications that could affect the death sentence, have been resolved.
In recent years, there have been instances of murder charges being reduced to culpable homicide not amounting to murder. For example, in 2021, a teenager who fatally slashed a fellow student at River Valley High School was sentenced to 16 years in jail. Similarly, in 2023, Xavier Yap Jung Houn received a 14-year prison sentence for strangling his 11-year-old twins.
During the court proceedings, it was revealed that Ahmed and Ms. Nurhidayati had been in a relationship since May 2012. They had planned to get married, but she began an affair with a Bangladeshi plumber in mid-2018. After confronting her and discovering her infidelity, Ahmed asked his mother to find him a wife, but the couple later reconciled.
However, tensions arose due to Ms. Nurhidayati’s continued involvement with another man. On the evening of December 30, 2018, Ahmed strangled her with a towel in a hotel room after she refused to end her relationship with the other man.
The court determined that Ahmed had intended to kill Ms. Nurhidayati even before December 30, 2018, as evidenced by his preparation, such as bringing a rope to the hotel and emptying his bank account on the day of the murder.
Ahmed was represented by a team of lawyers, including Eugene Thuraisingam, Chooi Jing Yen, and Hamza Malik. Mr. Thuraisingam stated that they had argued that Ahmed’s adjustment disorder impaired his mental responsibility for the crime and sought a life imprisonment sentence instead of the death penalty. However, the court concluded that Ahmed was aware of the wrongfulness of his actions and did not lose control of himself.
Mr. Thuraisingam, who has handled capital cases since 2012, emphasized the high stakes involved for defense lawyers in such cases. He expressed that despite their best efforts, the law must now take its course, and they must accept and respect the outcome of the proceedings.
