Singapore: High Court suspends execution of disabled Malaysian amid pleas

On Monday, November 8, Singapore's High Court halted the scheduled execution of a Malaysian man charged with trying to smuggle around 43 grams of heroin into the country. The man is deemed to be mentally ill and the execution has been suspended until an appeal is heard. 33-year-old Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam was scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday, November 10 but it has been suspended amid pleas from the international community and rights groups, reported The Associated Press (AP). In addition, Nagaenthran's defence lawyer, M Ravi, also contended that a capital sentence for a mentally challenged person was a breach of Singapore's Constitution. 

The lawyer stated on Facebook that the execution has been stayed "pending the hearing of the appeal to the Court of Appeal,” Singapore's apex court. The appeal is set to be heard on Tuesday, November 9, and if this fails, the stay will be lifted and Nagaenthran will be executed as planned. It should be mentioned here that a small bundle of heroin was discovered strapped to Nagaenthran's left leg at a checkpoint more than a decade ago. 

Nagaenthran was awarded death sentence in 2010

In November 2010, he was given the death penalty under the country's stringent narcotics laws. Meanwhile, a previous attempt to have the sentence reduced to life in prison was unsuccessful, and a final request for the presidential pardon was also denied last year. According to death penalty opponents, Nagaenthran's IQ was revealed during a trial at the High Court as 69, a level that is internationally recognised as intellectual impairment. However, However, the court upheld Nagaenthran's death sentence, ruling that he was fully aware of what he was doing. 

Nagaenthran's family lives in the Malaysian city of Ipoh. Kirsten Han, an activist who assisted his mother, two younger siblings, and cousin in arranging travel to Singapore, said that they had been given daily prison visits since arriving last week, reported the news agency. Notably, on November, 3, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob also reportedly wrote a letter to Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urging him for leniency "purely on humanitarian grounds." A petition advocating for Nagaenthran's presidential pardon has nearly 65,000 signatures. Meanwhile, in a joint letter to Singapore's president, relatives and friends of 13 current and previous death row inmates also called for the sentence to be repealed. 

(With AP inputs)

Image: AP