SINGAPORE (UCAN): Singapore’s Court of Appeal was urged to show mercy when it heard the last-ditch appeal on March 1 of a Malaysian man facing execution. Supporters say he is mentally disabled and has an IQ of 69 and and was coerced into committing the crime.
Thirty-four-year-old Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was arrested in 2009 after a bundle of heroin, weighing around 43 grams, was found strapped to his thigh as he sought to enter Singapore.
The city-state has some of the world’s toughest drugs laws, and he was handed a then mandatory death sentence the following year.
He was to be hanged in November, but the plan sparked criticism due to concerns that he has intellectual disabilities, with the European Union and British billionaire, Richard Branson, among those condemning it.
Dharmalingam’s lawyer, Violet Netto, argued that executing someone who is mentally disabled runs counter to international law.
She urged the judges to show “mercy” by allowing him to undergo an independent assessment, and asked for the defense to be given time to find psychiatrists to conduct the examination.
However prosecutor, Wong Woon Kwong, opposed the move and said the defense was seeking to delay proceedings, accusing them of “abusing the process of this court.”
Executing someone whose mental disabilities may impede an effective defense runs counter to international law, and so does the use of this punishment for drug-related offences and its mandatory imposition
The proceedings ended without a verdict being issued, and a ruling will be handed down at a later date that to be decided.
The appeal was supposed to take place months ago but was delayed after Dharmalingam contracted Covid-19. Campaigners fear chances of success are slim. If he is hanged, it would be the first execution in Singapore since 2019 and might become the first in a series in the coming months, with activists warning that authorities are gearing up to execute three other drug traffickers.
Singapore is among more than 30 countries worldwide where drug-related offences are still punishable by death, according to Amnesty International.
Activist, Kokila Annamalai, from the Transformative Justice Collective, which campaigns against the death penalty in Singapore said she had spoken to Dharmalingam after the proceedings. “He wants another chance mostly for the sake of his family because he’s very concerned about the trauma to them if he is executed,” she said.
Amnesty International also urged Singapore to spare Dharmalingam and “prevent a travesty of justice.”
It said, “Executing someone whose mental disabilities may impede an effective defense runs counter to international law, and so does the use of this punishment for drug-related offences and its mandatory imposition.”
