Singapore: The 39-year-old victim of a heroin trafficking conviction was hanged in Singapore on Thursday, the city-state's fifth hanging of the year and third in less than a week, according to officials.

In 2019, Mohamed Shalleh Adul Latiff was found guilty of possessing about 55 grammes of heroin "for the purpose of trafficking" and was given the death penalty. His punishment was carried out on Thursday, according to a statement from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

Before being detained in 2016, Mohamed Shalleh worked as a delivery driver, according to court records. He testified during his trial that he had thought he was delivering illegal cigarettes for a friend to whom he owed money.

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He was the 16th prisoner to be executed since the government started carrying them out again in March 2022 following a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The execution occurs less than a week after Singapore executed the first woman for drug trafficking in nearly 20 years in spite of protests from rights organisations.

Singaporean Saridewi Binte Djamani, 45, was executed on Friday for smuggling about 30 grammes of heroin. Two days earlier, a 57-year-old local man named Mohd Aziz bin Hussain had been hanged for smuggling about 50 grammes of heroin.

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Last week, the United Nations condemned the hangings and demanded that Singapore put an end to the death penalty. Singapore maintains that the death penalty is an effective deterrent against drug trafficking despite mounting international pressure on the subject. The wealthy financial hub has some of the strictest anti-drug regulations in the entire world; trafficking more than 500 grammes of cannabis or more than 15 grammes of heroin can result in the death penalty.