Today, Nazeri bin Lajim was executed in Singapore for a drug related offence. It is the fifth execution carried out in the country since 30 March this year and already the third this month.

The European Union strongly opposes the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances. It is a cruel and inhumane punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent to crime and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity.

The European Union will continue to work for the abolition of the death penalty in the few remaining countries that still apply it. Over the last 10 years, no executions took place in 162 Member States of the United Nations, which represents 84% of their total number.

The European Union calls on the Government of Singapore to urgently commute the sentences of prisoners currently on death row to non-capital punishments and to institute a moratorium on the death penalty with a view to its ultimate abolition.