Singapore executes mentally disabled man despite worldwide outcry

Singapore on Wednesday executed a mentally disabled Malaysian man condemned for a drug offense after a court docket dismissed a last-minute problem from his mom and worldwide pleas to spare him.

Nagaenthran Ok. Dharmalingam, 34, had been on demise row for over a decade after he was convicted of trafficking about one-and-a-half ounces of heroin into Singapore. The town-state’s authorities has mentioned its use of the demise penalty for drug crimes is made clear at its borders.

Nagaenthran’s household and social activists confirmed the execution Wednesday.

“On this rating could I declare that Malaysia is much extra humane,” his sister Sarmila Dharmalingam mentioned. “Zero to Singapore on this.”

Nagaenthran’s supporters and attorneys mentioned he had an IQ of 69 and was intellectually disabled, and that the execution of a mentally in poor health particular person was prohibited below worldwide human rights regulation.

Singapore’s courts dominated, citing psychiatrists’ testimony in court docket, that he was not mentally disabled and had understood his actions on the time of his crime.

“Nagaenthran Dharmalingam’s identify will go down in historical past because the sufferer of a tragic miscarriage of justice,” mentioned Maya Foa, director of non-governmental group Reprieve.

“Hanging an intellectually disabled, mentally unwell man as a result of he was coerced into carrying lower than three tablespoons of diamorphine is unjustifiable and a flagrant violation of worldwide legal guidelines that Singapore has chosen to enroll to.”

Nagaenthran and his mom had filed a movement Monday arguing that it was unconstitutional to proceed together with his demise sentence and that he could not have been given a good trial as a result of the chief justice who presided over his appeals had been the legal professional common when Nagaenthran was convicted in 2010, which the submitting alleged might be a battle of curiosity.

The court docket dismissed the movement, describing it as “frivolous.”

His household mentioned Nagaenthran’s physique will probably be delivered to their hometown in Malaysia’s northern state of Perak, the place they’ve made preparations for his funeral.

Singapore had halted executions for 2 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic earlier than resuming them with the execution of a drug trafficker in March.

Anybody discovered with over a half-ounce of heroin faces the demise sentence in Singapore, though judges can cut back that to life in jail at their discretion. Makes an attempt to scale back Nagaenthran’s sentence or acquire a presidential pardon failed.

Malaysia’s chief, European Union representatives and world figures resembling British enterprise magnate Richard Branson referred to as for Nagaenthran’s life to be spared and used the case to advocate for ending capital punishment.