Singapore –
Singapore executed a Malaysian man convicted of drug trafficking on Wednesday after a court dismissed a last-minute challenge from his mother and international pleas to be pardoned for having a mental disability.
Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, 34, had been on death row for more than a decade after being convicted of trafficking some 43 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin into Singapore. The city-state government has said the use of the death penalty for drug-related offenses is clear across borders.
Nagaenthran’s family and social activists confirmed the execution on Wednesday.
“In this sense, I can declare that Malaysia is much more humane,” said his sister, Sarmila Dharmalingam. “Zero Singapore on this.”
Nagaenthran’s supporters and lawyers said he had an IQ of 69 and was intellectually disabled, and that the execution of a mentally ill person was prohibited under international human rights law.
The Singapore courts cited psychiatrists’ testimony that he was not mentally disabled and had understood his actions at the time of the crime.
“Nagaenthran Dharmalingam’s name will go down in history as the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice,” said Maya Foa, director of the non-governmental organization Reprieve.
“Hanging a mentally ill and intellectually disabled man because he was forced to carry less than three tablespoons of diamorphine is unjustifiable and a flagrant violation of international law to which Singapore has chosen to subscribe,” he said.
Nagaenthran and his mother filed a motion Monday arguing that it was unconstitutional to proceed with his death sentence and that he may not have received a fair trial because the chief justice presiding over his appeals had been the attorney general when Nagaenthran was sentenced in 2010. , which according to the presentation could be a conflict of interest.
The court dismissed the motion, describing it as “frivolous.”
His family said Nagaenthran’s body will be taken to his hometown in the northern Malaysian state of Perak for a funeral.
Singapore had halted executions for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic before resuming them with the execution of a drug trafficker in March.
Anyone found with more than 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin faces the death penalty in Singapore, although it can be reduced to life in prison. Attempts to reduce Nagaenthran’s sentence or obtain a presidential pardon failed.
Malaysia’s leader, representatives of the European Union and world figures such as British business tycoon Richard Branson called for Nagaenthran’s life to be spared and used the case to advocate an end to capital punishment.
Human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement that Nagaenthran’s hanging “highlights the deep flaws in Singapore’s death penalty and the horror of its continued use.”
“Nagaenthran’s execution is a shameful act by the Singapore government, carried out ruthlessly despite numerous protests in Singapore and Malaysia and outcry around the world,” said Erwin van der Borght, Amnesty International’s Regional Director. for Asia and the Pacific.
According to activists, another Malaysian, Datchinamurthy Kataiah, is scheduled to be executed in Singapore on Friday. He was found guilty of smuggling 45 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin from Malaysia. Singapore does not formally announce the hangings of him.
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Ng reported from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Reference-www.ctvnews.ca