Singapore’s top court yesterday dismissed a last-ditch appeal against a death sentence for a mentally disabled Malaysian man.
Nagaenthran Dharmalingam was arrested in 2009 for trafficking a small quantity of heroin and handed a then-mandatory death sentence the following year.
He was originally scheduled to be hanged in November last year, but the plan sparked criticism due to concerns about his intellectual disabilities, with the EU and British billionaire Richard Branson among those condemning it.
Photo: Reuters
The 34-year-old lodged a final appeal, with his lawyers arguing that executing someone with mental disabilities contravened international law.
However, the Singaporean Court of Appeal rejected the challenge, with Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon saying it had “no factual and legal basis,” and domestic legislation takes precedence over international law.
Menon said that Dharmalingam had been “afforded due process” and his defense had put “nothing forward to suggest that he has a case.”
Lawyers were filing “hopeless” motions after several appeals had already been rejected, he said.
Dharmalingam, wearing a purple prison outfit and white mask, looked somber throughout the proceedings.
M. Ravi, a human rights lawyer assisting in the case, said no more appeals would be lodged and the execution could take place in days.
Speaking to reporters from Malaysia, his sister Sarmila Dharmalingam sobbed as she said that the family was “devastated.”
“We are shocked by the court decision despite my brother ... having a low IQ,” Sarmila Dharmalingam said.
His long-running case has been “a horrifying ordeal for us,” she said.
Reprieve, a non-governmental organization that campaigns against the death penalty, said that hanging Nagaenthran Dharmalingam would be a “travesty of justice” that breached Singapore’s commitments to champion the rights of disabled people.
“We urge [Singaporean] President Halimah Yacob to listen to the cries for mercy within Singapore and around the world... and spare the life of this vulnerable man,” Repreive director Maya Foa said.
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