Mentally-disabled Malaysian Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam due to hang in Singapore after court dismisses last-ditch appeal
Activists and relatives of a Malaysian man scheduled to hang in Singapore on Wednesday for drug-trafficking have made last-ditch pleas for mercy, as citizens in both countries held vigils and the United Nations called for a stay of execution.
The case involving Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, 34, has attracted global attention as campaigners - including the British billionaire Richard Branson - have decried authorities proceeding with the hanging despite the fact that Nagaenthran has the mental age of a minor.
The country's Court of Appeal previously described his defence as "hopeless" and lawyers' claims of him being mentally disabled as without any legal or factual basis. A legal challenge filed by Nagaenthran's mother was dismissed by the court on Tuesday.
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Singaporean anti-death penalty activist and freelance journalist Kirsten Han said earlier on Twitter that Nagaenthran's family had not been able to find a lawyer and that his mother would appear in court herself.
Malaysian lawyer N. Surendran, who founded rights group Lawyers for Liberty, said on Twitter that the judges had "grilled" Nagaenthran's mother on who had drafted and filed court documents for her but the "court has shown no interest in the substance of the case".
Campaigners have said that, given Nagaenthran's mental disability and IQ of 69, he should not be hanged.
About 400 people gathered on Monday at Hong Lim Park, Singapore's only free speech zone, to protest about the planned execution.
Activists say the family of another man, Datchinamurthy Kataiah, 37, has also been given notice that he will face the noose later this week for drug-related offences.
A spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Office on Monday urged the Singapore government to "immediately halt its execution plans, to consider granting Mr Dharmalingham and Mr Kataiah clemency, and to commute their sentences to prison terms".
The European Union, as well as Norway and Switzerland, have condemned Nagaenthran's sentence. Branson, British actor Stephen Fry and Timothy Shriver, American disability rights activist and chair of the Special Olympics, have also pleaded with Singaporean authorities to spare the Malaysian's life.
The three men recorded a video together, with Branson saying the execution would pose "a great risk to your country's reputation in the world - including its reputation in the world of business".
There were also demonstrations supporting Nagaenthran in Malaysia. Members of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (Adpan) and Lawyers for Liberty organised a protest against his execution on Saturday outside the Singapore High Commission in Kuala Lumpur.
Two candlelight vigils were also planned for Tuesday night, one outside the Commission and another in the Malaysian city of Johor Bahru nearby.
Adpan said there was "no justifiable reason why a person with intellectual disability exploited by drug traffickers as a mule should hang".
Lawyers for Liberty told the Malaysia Now website that Singapore was "engaged in a reckless and bloody execution spree, in disregard of the rule of law and civilised norms". Three participating lawyers were summoned by the Malaysian police for questioning on Tuesday.
Nagaenthran was detained in April 2009, when he was 21, for carrying 42.72 grams of heroin into Singapore from Malaysia. He was convicted in 2010 and given the death penalty.
An earlier judicial review involving Nagaenthran's death sentence was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in 2019.
In November last year he was due to appear in court for an appeal the day before his planned execution, but tested positive for Covid-19 and a stay of execution was granted.
The appeal was last month dismissed by the nation's highest court, with Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon saying it had relied on defence counsel M. Ravi's "firm belief" of Nagaenthran's mental age - even though the lawyer "acknowledged that he did not have the necessary medical expertise to form a view on the question of the appellant's mental age".
The court also reiterated its long-standing position that only legislative change could alter the country's stance on capital punishment.
In March, Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam shared survey results showing "strong support" for the death penalty in Singapore. He said preliminary findings from a survey carried out last year found that more than 80 per cent of respondents believed capital punishment deterred offenders.
The same study found that 66 per cent felt the death penalty was appropriate for drug-trafficking, compared to 81 per cent for intentional murder and 71 per cent for firearm offences.
"We prefer not to have to impose the death penalty on anyone, but we have to continue to do what is best for us as a matter of policy," said Shanmugam.
Singapore had not executed anyone for more than two years until March 30, when Singaporean Abdul Kahar bin Othman, 68, was hanged for drug-related offences.
The UN office of the human rights commissioner (OHRC) on Monday said it was "deeply concerned" at a "rapid rise" in the number of execution notices issued in Singapore and said the death penalty for drug-related offences was "incompatible with international human rights law".
"Countries that have not yet abolished the death penalty may only impose it for the 'most serious crimes', which is interpreted as crimes of extreme gravity involving intentional killing," it said, adding that at least three other men found guilty of drug-related offences were at risk of imminent execution in Singapore.
Britain-based anti-death penalty charity Reprieve said Nagaenthran's case had sparked "unprecedented levels of opposition to the death penalty".
"Killing someone who clearly lacks mental competency will directly undermine Singapore's efforts to champion the rights of persons with disabilities," said Reprieve director Maya Foa.
"Grant him clemency or transfer him to Malaysia, where he may receive family support and care for his condition and his deteriorating mental state."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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