A man who murdered his girlfriend at a hotel in Singapore was hanged on Feb. 28, 2024.
Ahmed Salim, a 35-year-old Bangladeshi national, was sentenced to capital punishment on Dec. 14, 2020.
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a press release that Ahmed was accorded full due process under the law, and had access to legal counsel throughout the process.
While he had appealed against his conviction and sentence, his appeal was dismissed on Jan. 19, 2022.
He also petitioned the President for clemency but was unsuccessful.
"Capital punishment is used only for the most serious crimes in Singapore that cause grave harm to the victim, or to society," the SPF wrote.
"Capital punishment is but one part of Singapore’s criminal justice system, which has kept Singapore and Singaporeans safe and secure."
Anti-death penalty group highlighted Ahmed's adjustment disorder
Transformative Justice Collective (TJC), an anti-death penalty group in Singapore, posted about Ahmed's case one day before his execution.
The group opposes the use of the death penalty in all cases, without exception. It described capital punishment as "one of the most cold-blooded and pre-meditated forms of murder".
It highlighted how the state's psychiatric expert had found Ahmed to be suffering from an adjustment disorder at the time of the murder.
The disorder involves "excessive and intense reactions and behaviour changes" related to a stressful event, and can overwhelm the person’s ability to cope.
Ahmed's team of lawyers, headed by Eugene Thuraisingam, argued that the adjustment disorder had impaired his mental responsibility, reported The Straits Times.
His lawyers argued that, because of this, Ahmed should have been sentenced to life imprisonment, and spared the death penalty.
While both the prosecution and defence agreed that Ahmed had an "abnormality of mind", the court ultimately ruled that it was not sufficient to make out a defence of diminished responsibility.
Ahmed would not have faced the death penalty if the court had found him to have diminished responsibility, TJC noted,
It explained that the prosecution has the "discretion to charge the person under other provisions that do not carry the mandatory death penalty".
First judicial execution for murder since 2019
The Straits Times reported that Ahmed's hanging is the first judicial execution for murder in the country since 2019 and the first execution in 2024, citing a spokesman from the Singapore Prison Service.
Statistics from SPS show that the last judicial executions for murder were in 2019, where there were two such cases, ST reported.
There were a total of four executions in 2019.
The newspaper also drew attention to recent cases of murder charges being reduced to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
It included the River Valley High School slashing in 2021 where a teenager was sentenced to 16 years' jail and the case of Xavier Yap Jung Houn who was sentenced to 14 years' jail after he killed his twin sons last year.
The case
Ahmed was in a relationship with a 34-year-old Indonesian national since 2012.
However, the woman started a relationship with another man in mid-2018.
While they later reconciled, their relationship continued to be on the rocks as the couple constantly quarrelled.
On Dec. 9, 2018, Ahmed found out that the woman was dating another man again.
He became angry and planned to strangle her with a drawstring taken from his jacket if she refused to break up with the man.
On Dec. 23, 2018, he met the woman at the Golden Dragon Hotel.
They checked into a room. Ahmed already had the rope in the pocket of his pants.
However, the woman convinced him that she had not met the other man.
After they parted ways that day, she called him and informed him that their relationship was truly over.
Ahmed was left enraged and resolved to kill her.
As part of his plan, he convinced his girlfriend to meet him for the last time at the same hotel seven days later.
He planned to demand that she break up with her new boyfriend and kill her if she disagreed.
The day of the murder
On the morning of Dec. 30, 2018, Admed brought along the rope to the hotel and met his girlfriend.
After checking into a room, the couple had sexual intercourse.
After failing to persuade the woman to break up with her new boyfriend, Ahmed strangled her to death first with a towel and then tied a rope around her neck several times.
To make sure that she was dead, he forcefully twisted her head.
He left her body at the hotel and later returned to check that she was dead.
The victim's body was later discovered by the hotel's receptionist after the booking for that room had expired.
Ahmed was later arrested at his company the next day.
Top photo courtesy of Shin Min Daily News.