Syed Suhail Bin Syed Zin, born on 8 April 1976, is set to be executed in Singapore’ Changi Prison at dawn on Thursday, 23 January 2025. This will be Singapore’s first execution of 2025.
Syed’s third execution notice
This is the third, and final, time that Syed received an execution notice. Since he was first arrested on 3 August 2011, two other execution dates were fixed but eventually stayed due to legal proceedings.
On 20 January 2020, the then President of Singapore Madam Halimah Yacob made an order for Syed to be executed on 7 February 2020. On 5 February 2020, a respite order of the execution was issued.
Later that same year, on 8 September 2020, the President made a new order for Syed to be executed on 18 September 2020. That execution was stayed as Syed was granted leave by the Court of Appeal to commence judicial review proceedings in relation to the State’s policy of scheduling executions.
By way of a letter from the Istana dated 8 January 2025, Syed’s sister was informed that Syed’s petition for clemency was rejected by the President on the advice of the Cabinet. The letter concluded by stating “the sentence of death therefore stands“.
In an Instagram post dated 22 January 2025, Syed’s lawyer, Derek Wong of Phoenix Law Coporation, shared that Syed told during a visit on 21 January 2025 that:-
“Don’t worry… I’ve already… I accept already“.
Arrested in 2011, Sentenced to Death in 2015
Syed was first arrested at about 9:45pm on 3 August 2011 in Chua Chu Kang. He was convicted and sentenced to the mandatory death penalty on 2 December 2015 for trafficking in not less than 38.84g of diamorphine. Syed’s appeal was ultimately dismissed on 18 October 2018 by the Court of Appeal, Singapore’s apex Court.
Both the trial court and the appeal court found that Syed’s defence of consumption (he argued that the entire consignment of drugs found to be in his possession was for his personal consumption) was not established.
Syed has had a long history of substance abuse. At trial, he admitted that he started consuming heroin in 1999. He was admitted to the drug rehabilitation centre twice, from 26 June 1999 to 16 August 2000 and from 13 December 2000 to 31 May 2002.
Since the time that his appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in October 2018, Syed was involved in several other Court proceedings and legal challenges. This included the recently concluded “Prisons Correspondence” challenge where Singapore’s apex Court found that the Singapore Prison Service acted unlawfully by disclosing prisoners’ letters.
Syed’s Elder Sister, Sharifah, reflects on his life
“Our mother passed away when Syed was 16. I believe the loss of our mother caused us to break down. Syed lost sight of family and began getting more involved with his friends. I was more interested in searching for a partner. Our mother was the disciplinarian at home; without her, Syed and I developed our own coping mechanisms, without thinking about Sharmila and our stepfather, who were also dealing with the same pain, loss and despair.
I believe it was the trauma of losing our mother, and the influence of peers, that pushed Syed to start using drugs.
He was only 16. I was lucky to have had my mother’s presence until I was 18. I’d spent time with her, learnt her strength, and felt her encouragement. I had also experienced being disciplined by her.”
In a piece titled “My brother, Syed” published by the Transformative Justice Collective Singapore, Syed’s elder sister Sharifah shares that Syed’s drug habit got worse when he struggled to find a “better job” after his release from the DRC.
In his own way, Syed tried his hardest to kick the habit. He was private and secretive about his addiction. It was something we never discussed openly as siblings. Perhaps we should have; it could have saved him from going further down the rabbit hole.
I think Syed was going through his own battle. For him to repeatedly turn to drugs, he must have had an ongoing inner struggle and desperation to kick the habit. An addiction controls the mind in all of its choices.
Syed’s Final Letter
Syed’s prose, advocacy, and resilience from death row has opened many eyes.
In a previous letter to his sister Sharifah from April 2022, Syed argued that mercy and compassion, above all else, is what the world needs the most right now.
I just want to say thank you to every single one of you for the support, kindness and dedication that you have given me. We are living in strange times right now, where hate seems to be thriving in almost every corner of the world. And so it is like a breath of fresh air when I see that our family is still with me, accompanying me on this painful journey. Thank you for echoing my thoughts and feelings and of understanding that mercy and compassion, above all else, is what the world needs most right now.
The harshness and cruelty that some have claimed is just, is not. Two wrongs do not make a right. In the end, there is only a legacy of bloodshed that posterity may not even want on their hands anymore.
A mercy petition that called for his previously scheduled execution to be halted garnered more than 33,000 signatories online.
Anti-death penalty activist and independent journalist Kirsten Han, who first broke the news of Syed’s imminent execution, said that “Syed was the first to give me a clear view of the devastating scale of capital punishment in Singapore.”
When I wrote about Syed back in 2020, there was not yet a Transformative Justice Collective (TJC). It was the public’s response to Syed—the outpouring of support for him and the number of signatures calling for mercy—that fuelled our motivation to start TJC to not only work on the death penalty issue but also open up much-needed space to talk about drugs and drug policy, policing and incarceration.
I remember how determined Syed had been to collate information on death row cases and get activists a rough count of the number of men on death row, at a time when such information was incredibly difficult to come by. I remember being shocked by the number he passed on to us because it was so much higher than what my best guess had been.
After years of anti-death penalty activism, feeling my way around based on the very limited information I could glean from the families I was in touch with, Syed was the first to give me a clear view of the devastating scale of capital punishment in Singapore. He encouraged other death row prisoners to speak up and urged his family to do the same with the loved ones of other prisoners.
In her newsletter, Kirsten shared that, even after receiving his execution notice, Syed continued to speak up about the rights of prisoners and conditions on death row.
From my teens (in RTC) to my 20’s (DRCs), I’ve never felt shame for any of my crimes. To me, when I committed an offence and I got caught and was punished for it by doing time behind bars, I felt that my crimes and the punishments that followed was a debt I had already paid in full.
To add shame or regret to my debt to society would be adding a second stupidity to the first stupidity, which was the commission of the crime itself. I inadvertently created a world in which I genuinely believed that society hated me and wanted me removed from the picture. Even life was moving too fast for me to keep up.
As an outsider, I was always on the outside looking in. The happiness, success, prosperity and the social contract that I bore witness to around me was beyond me. Therefore I figured, why pine for things that I felt I could never achieve?
In 2020, when I was called up for my scheduled judicial execution, I was informed by a group of friends who had always been with me in spirit, in thoughts and in prayers that I deserved a second chance. They felt I deserved compassion. The love I felt was an unselfish kind, a love that is not confused with feelings of attachment. The love I received instead was unconditional and its intent, to encourage me to be the best version of myself.
I was humbled then, and for once in my life, I felt shame. It’s a good kind of shame because I felt I belonged and was accepted, warts and all, which meant that I had always been part of the community. The shame was strong enough to remind me that although I had done wrong, I was still part of a community that accepted me with their encouragements, that I do possess the potential to repent and mend my ways. I doubt I’ll ever get to see the light of day outside these walls to put my repentance to practice to do some good for a change. However, the intent in my heart to do good and to do no evil would have to suffice. I have changed and I feel good. I have agency of perseverance.
Thank you for all the help you’ve given, it is appreciated and your kindness and dedication will always be remembered.
Your fellow Singaporean, Syed
Syed Suhail is set to be hanged at dawn in Changi Prison, Singapore, on 23 January 2025.
“All of us have our own skeletons in the closet. Our own silent addictions, coping mechanisms. For me, it was the temporary escape of clubbing, drinking, and finding love. For Syed, he sought to numb his heart and mind. I regret never asking him why he did the things he did. I was so caught up in my own pain that I neglected him. When our father passed away in Malaysia years later, Syed could not attend his funeral. On top of that, our father’s siblings were also fighting for a share of the family land in Malaysia. That probably fuelled his need for escape even more. ” – Sharifah, Syed’s sister, reflects on her brother
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