Singapore's Norasharee bin Gous, 48, and Malaysia's Kalwant Singh, 31, were sentenced to their death penalty at the Changi prison complex on Thursday.
Anti-death penalty activists protest outside the Singapore High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 4.
Singapore on Thursday executed two men for drug trafficking, ignoring pleas for clemency from human rights activists who fear a "new wave" of executions in the Asian city-state notorious for tough drug laws.
Their executions come just two months after Singapore hanged an intellectually disabled man for drug trafficking, bringing the total number of death sentences the country has handed down this year to four.
In a statement Tuesday, Singapore authorities said Norasharee and Singh - both convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to the mandatory death penalty - had exhausted their appeals.
Both men had been on death row for six years while numerous activists called for clemency. The two executions "appear to be part of a new wave" of executions in Singapore, Amnesty International Malaysia said in a statement earlier this week.
According to the Central Narcotics Bureau, both men were sentenced to death in June 2016. Singh was found guilty of possessing 60.15 grams (2.1 ounces) of heroin and trafficking 120.9 grams of the drug
while Norasharee was convicted of soliciting a man to traffic 120.9 grams of heroin.
In Singapore, trafficking in a certain amount of drugs - for example 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin - leads to a mandatory death penalty under the Misuse of Drugs Act, although the law was recently amended to allow a person convicted to do so under escape the death penalty in certain circumstances.
In April, Singapore executed Malaysian national Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, 34, in a case that sparked international outrage after psychologists determined he was mentally disabled and had an IQ of 69.
Arrested in 2009 for trafficking 42.7 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin, Dharmalingam was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2010.
Singapore's courts rejected several appeals to have Dharmalingan's execution overturned, in which his lawyers argued that he should not have been sentenced to death because he was unable to understand his actions.
The case again put the city-state's zero-tolerance drug laws to the test, with human rights activists arguing that the mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking was an inhumane punishment.
Emerlynne Gil, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for Research, urged Singapore on Thursday to immediately impose a moratorium on executions. "Singapore has once again executed people convicted of drug-related offenses in violation of international law, coldly ignoring public outcry," Gill said
Activists say tough drug laws in many Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore, have done little to stop the region's multi-billion dollar illegal drug trade.
"The Singapore government's persistence in upholding and using the death penalty has only led to global condemnation and tarnished Singapore's image as a developed, rule-of-law nation," the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network said in a June 30 statement.
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