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SINGAPORE – Singapore on Wednesday executed a man with an intellectual disability convicted of drug trafficking more than a decade ago, even as global condemnation spilled over.
Nagaentran Dharmalingham, 34, was hanged at dawn for trafficking three tablespoons of heroin in Singapore, which has a zero-tolerance policy and some of the world’s harshest penalties for nonviolent drug crimes.
Dharmalingam, a Malaysian with an IQ of 69, said he was forced to traffic the heroin package in 2009 as a way to pay off his debts. His mother said he planned to use the money to support her. He was traveling from Malaysia to Singapore when he was caught at a border checkpoint with heroin tied to his thigh.
“My brother had a very soft heart. He trusted everyone, “Dharmalingam brother Navim Kumar told The Washington Post on Wednesday after waking up. “Yesterday he told me, ‘I’m fine, my heart is good. I’m a good person, even though I made a mistake.
Singapore ready to execute mentally handicapped man for trafficking 1.5 ounces of heroin
In a recent complaint filed in December, Dharmalingam’s mother said he was “involved in criminal activity and sentenced to death because he has a disability that affects his reasoning and judgment.” He was first sentenced to death in 2010.
But authorities rejected his mother’s request for pardon at 11 a.m. Tuesday. Dharmalingam then asked the judge if he could speak and touch his family members who were present in court.
“This is my last wish,” he said through an interpreter. He held hands with his mother through a crack in the glass partition of the courtroom.
In a November statement justifying the previous denial of complaints, the Singapore Interior Ministry said Dharmalingam was aware of the illegal nature of its actions. “It was a conscious, purposeful and calculated decision,” the ministry said.
His sentence sparked international condemnation from governments, human rights groups and celebrities.
Ravi Madasami, a former Dharmalingam lawyer, said he had never seen so much activity by protesters against the death penalty. “It’s not like any other case I’ve seen,” he said. “I am extremely overwhelmed and overwhelmed. It is unbelievable that in a city like Singapore, which is supposed to be a modern city, a person with a mental disability is hanged today. ”
In a statement Monday before the execution, the UN called for a halt, saying “the use of the death penalty for drug-related crimes is incompatible with international human rights law”.
Singapore says the use of the death penalty in drug trafficking cases is in line with international law if the proper process is followed.
The case drew unwanted attention to Singapore’s death penalty laws, which are emblematic of the country’s conservative serious crime policies in the 20th century. The small island nation is one of the declining countries that imposes the death penalty for drug crimes, a practice that is hampering its efforts to become a modern global hub in Asia.
In the 12 years since Dharmalingam was sentenced to death, Singapore has revised its mandatory death penalty laws and given judges the discretion to turn death sentences into lighter sentences of life imprisonment. For nearly two years, Singapore has stopped all executions due to the coronavirus pandemic. The government has not granted pardon in the 1998 death penalty case.
But in March, the backlog of executions resumed and authorities hanged a 68-year-old man for drug trafficking. The Dharmalingam execution is one of two planned in Singapore this week. Dacinamurti Kataya, another Malaysian citizen convicted of drug trafficking, also faces hanging.
Authorities say the death penalty has discouraged heavy drug trafficking and allowed Singapore to become one of the safest places in the world. Opium trafficking has fallen by 66 percent in just four years since the introduction in 1990 of the mandatory death penalty for drugs involving more than 42 ounces (1.2 kg). According to a 2019 study by the Ministry of the Interior, nearly 70% of Singaporeans agree that the death penalty is more effective than life imprisonment as a deterrent against drug trafficking.
But disagreement is also slowly emerging.
At the Dharmalingam in Singapore, more than a dozen activists gathered to pay their respects. They gathered around an open coffin decorated with flowers and discussed how his case drew unprecedented attention to the fight to abolish the death penalty.
“It is now acknowledged that the death penalty should be abolished,” said Rocky Howe, 27, an activist who helped organize an earlier vigil for Dharmalingam. “We will fight harder and we will not stop until it is removed.”
On Monday, 300 people gathered for the candlelight vigil to protest the execution of Dharmalingam. A change.org petition calling for his pardon also garnered 100,000 signatures. Even the British billionaire Richard Branson got involved by asking the President of Singapore on Twitter to spare the life of the convict.
In an interview with Agence France-Presse, Branson called the execution “terrible stains” on Singapore’s reputation.
“I don’t think civilized countries should be killing their own people or anyone else,” he said.
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