Singaporean authorities are scheduled on Thursday to execute a man convicted of importing just over a kilogram of cannabis across the country’s border in a case that has drawn urgent condemnation from human rights organizations, the European Union, and a growing chorus of international observers.

Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj, 41, was arrested in 2018 after crossing the Malaysian border into Singapore with 1,009 grams of cannabis in his possession. In 2021, as many countries around the globe shifted toward marijuana legalization and decriminalization, Omar was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death by hanging.

Writing from Germany, where Omar had been living with his wife and two children at the time of his arrest, his wife Alexandra Maria Piel urged Singapore’s president to stay the execution. Piel has been raising the couple’s 9-year-old daughter alone since his arrest. Their son died five months ago at age 11.

“We have all lived under the shadow of the death penalty for many years,” Alexandra Maria Piel wrote in the letter. “Please give [our daughter] Amal the opportunity to experience the joy of reconnecting with her father, and not the irrevocable pain and regret of never having gotten to know him.”

Singapore’s Misuse of Drugs Act imposes a mandatory death sentence for the unauthorized import of more than 500 grams of cannabis.

Judge Tan Siong Thye, in the February 2021 judgment, found Omar’s claim that the cannabis was planted in his luggage to be not credible, noting that Omar had identified the bundles as cannabis to multiple officers before the packages were even opened. The court found his involvement was limited to transporting the drugs—classifying him legally as a courier, and potentially exempt from the death penalty. However, because prosecutors did not provide a certificate confirming he had substantively assisted authorities in disrupting drug trafficking networks, the judge was left with no discretion. The mandatory death sentence was imposed.

“The judge had no option but to impose the mandatory death penalty,” Human Rights Watch noted in a statement Tuesday, citing the legal conditions Omar failed to satisfy.

Omar’s family had relocated to Germany years before his arrest. His wife, a German national, explains in her clemency letter that the move was driven by her own health issues and the need for specialized care for their son Naqeeb, who was born with cerebral palsy and was partially blind, deaf and wheelchair-bound. Germany provided robust disability support, she wrote, that Singapore could not match.

Between 2016 and 2018, Omar returned to Singapore only twice—first when his mother died, and then for Ramadan two years later, when he was arrested returning from a day trip to Malaysia with his father.

Since his conviction, the family has never been able to visit him in prison. The cost and logistics of traveling from Germany to Singapore, compounded by Naqeeb’s intensive medical needs and the family’s financial strain after losing Omar’s income, made it impossible. For years, even phone calls were not permitted. It was only during the COVID-19 pandemic, following intervention by the German embassy in Singapore, that calls became more regular.

Naqeeb died last November at the age of 11.

“Our family was still reeling from this devastating loss when we were notified by the prison of Omar’s impending execution,” Piel wrote. The execution notice arrived April 2—giving the family two weeks to respond.

The EU and other diplomatic missions issued a joint statement Wednesday calling on Singapore to halt the execution immediately.

“The death penalty is incompatible with the inalienable right to life and the absolute prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment,” the statement read. “There is no conclusive evidence that the death penalty contributes to curbing or preventing drug trafficking more than other types of punishment.” The delegation called on Singapore to adopt a moratorium on all executions as a first step toward abolition, noting the trend toward reduction of capital punishment elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Advocates pressing for clemency point to a precedent set just eight months ago. On Aug. 14, 2025, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam granted clemency to Tristan Tan Yi Rui, 33, who had been sentenced to death in 2023 for trafficking 337.6 grams of methamphetamine. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after Singapore’s Cabinet recommended clemency.