Singapore executes mentally-disabled Malaysian Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam after court dismisses last-ditch appeal

A Malaysian man found guilty of drug trafficking was executed on Wednesday in Singapore after a last-ditch legal challenge by his mother failed in a high-profile case that had attracted international calls for clemency.

The family of Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam and anti-death penalty campaigners confirmed the execution took place early on Wednesday morning.

Nagaenthran, 34, had been on death row for more than a decade for trafficking 43 grams (1.5 oz) of heroin into Singapore, which has some of the world’s toughest narcotics laws. His brother Navin Kumar, 22, told Reuters by telephone the execution had been carried out and said the funeral would be held in the town of Ipoh in Malaysia.

The case had attracted global attention as campaigners – including the British billionaire Richard Branson – decried authorities proceeding with the hanging despite the fact that Nagaenthran had the mental age of a minor.

“Nagaenthran Dharmalingam’s name will go down in history as the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice,” said Mary Foa, the director of the Britain-based anti-death penalty charity Reprieve.

Foa described the execution as a “flagrant violation of international laws that Singapore has chosen to sign up to”, adding that “unprecedented” protests in the country against the hanging signalled shifting public opinion about capital punishment.

Singapore’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.

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 said Nagaenthran should not have been hanged, given his mental disability and IQ of 69.

About 400 people gathered on Monday at Hong Lim Park, Singapore’s only free speech zone, to protest against the 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 had 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, condemned Nagaenthran’s sentence. Branson, British actor Stephen Fry and Timothy Shriver, American disability rights activist and chair of the Special Olympics, 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 Baharu 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.

‘A matter of policy’

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.

His 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.

Singapore rejects Malaysian man’s ‘hopeless’ appeal against execution

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.

Death penalty: world executes fewer prisoners, Singapore and Vietnam kill more

In an earlier statement, Foa from 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,” she said.

Additional reporting by Reuters