SINGAPORE (AP) – Singapore on Wednesday executed a Malaysian convicted of drug smuggling after a court rejected his mother’s last-minute challenge and international pleas to spare him on the grounds that he was mentally injured.
Nagaentran K. Dharmalingam, 34, was sentenced to death for more than a decade after being found guilty of trafficking about 43 grams (1.5 pounds) of heroin in Singapore. The city-state government has said the use of the death penalty for drug crimes is clear at the borders.
Nagaentran’s family and social activists confirmed the execution on Wednesday.
“In that sense, can I say that Malaysia is much more humane,” said his sister, Sarmila Dharmalingam. “Zero for Singapore for that.”
Proponents and advocates of Nagaenthran said he had an IQ of 69 and was mentally handicapped, and that the execution of a mentally ill person was prohibited by international human rights law.
Courts in Singapore quoted psychiatrists as saying that he was not mentally handicapped and understood his actions at the time of the crime.
“The name Nagaenthran Dharmalingam will go down in history as a victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice,” said Maya Foa, director of the NGO Reprieve.
“The hanging of a man with an intellectual disability, mentally ill because he was forced to carry less than three tablespoons of diamorphine, is unjustified and is a gross violation of international law that Singapore has chosen to join,” she said.
Nagaentran and his mother filed a motion Monday, arguing that it was unconstitutional to continue his death sentence and that a fair trial may not have taken place, as the chief judge presiding over his appeals was the chief prosecutor when Nagaentran was convicted in 2010, which is alleged to be a conflict of interest.
The court rejected the request, calling it “not serious”.
His family said Nagaentran’s body would be brought to their hometown in the northern Malaysian state of Perak for burial.
Singapore halted executions for two years over the COVID-19 pandemic before resuming executions in March.
Anyone found with more than 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin faces the death penalty in Singapore, although it could be reduced to life in prison. Attempts to reduce Nagaentran’s sentence or obtain a presidential pardon failed.
Malaysia’s leader, European Union officials and world figures such as British business tycoon Richard Branson have called for Nagentran’s life to be spared and used the occasion to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.
The human rights organization Amnesty International said in a statement that the hanging of Nagaentran “highlights the deep shortcomings of the death penalty in Singapore and the horror of its continued use.”
“The execution of Nagaenthran is a disgraceful act by the Singaporean government – relentless despite widespread protests in Singapore and Malaysia and protests around the world,” said Erwin van der Borgt, Amnesty International’s regional director for Asia and the Pacific.
Activists say another Malaysian, Dacinamurti Kataya, is due to be executed in Singapore on Friday. He was convicted of smuggling 45 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin from Malaysia. Singapore has not officially announced its hangings.
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Ng reported from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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