Singapore killed a mentally challenged Malaysian man sentenced to death for narcotics charge on Wednesday, despite a court rejecting a last-minute appeal from his mother and worldwide calls to spare him.
Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, had spent almost a decade on execution row after being convicted of smuggling around 43 grammes of heroin into Singapore. The leadership of the city-state has stated that its usage of the death sentence for drug offences is made explicit at the country’s borders.
The execution was verified Wednesday by Nagenthran’s relatives and social activists.
His sister Sarmila Dharmalingam stated,
“Permit me to state that Malaysia is significantly more humanitarian in this regard.”
Nagenthran’s friends and attorneys claimed he had an IQ of 69 and was intellectually impaired, and that executing a mentally ill person was forbidden under international human rights legislation.
Maya Foa, executive director of the non-governmental group Reprieve, stated,
“Nagaenthran Dharmalingam’s name will forever be associated with a sad miscarriage of justice.”
“Executing an intellectually disabled and mentally ill man for carrying less than three tablespoons of diamorphine is irrational and a blatant violation of the international standards to which Singapore has chosen to adhere.”
Nagaenthran and his mother filed a plea Monday alleging that carrying out his death sentence was illegal and that he may not have had a fair trial because the chief justice who ruled over his appeals was the attorney general at the time of his conviction in 2010. The court denied the application as “frivolous.”
His family stated that Nagenthran’s remains would be sent to their homeland in Malaysia’s northern state of Perak, where burial arrangements had been prepared. Singapore suspended executions for two years during COVID but resumed them in March with the execution of a drug trafficker.
Anyone discovered in possession of more than 15 grammes (0.5 ounces) of heroin receives the death penalty in Singapore, however, judges have the power to commute this to life in prison. Efforts to commute Nagaenthran’s sentence or secure a presidential pardon were unsuccessful.
Malaysia’s government, European Union delegates, and worldwide celebrities such as British business billionaire Richard Branson all pleaded with the court to spare Nagaenthran’s life and used the case to promote the abolition of the death penalty.
Edited By:Â Khushi Thakur
Published By:Â Bhavya Dedhia
