On Wednesday (Apr 20), the family of convicted Malaysian drug trafficker Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was told that he would be executed next week, on Apr 27.
Activists have been fighting his execution for many months, arguing that Nagaenthran has an IQ of 69 and suffers from an intellectual disability. They want an end to the death penalty in Singapore and will hold a candlelight vigil for him on Monday night, Apr 25. The public is invited to attend.
Community organiser Kokila Annamalai, who is listed as the event host, announced the vigil on Facebook on Apr 21. She says:
” ‘Pray for me,’ are the last words Nagen said to me. There will be a vigil for Nagen on Monday, 25 April, from 7-10pm, at the Speakers’ Corner at Hong Lim Park. Come. Let’s fill the park with our bodies in solidarity.”
“We gather on Monday for a candlelight vigil to mark our opposition to this cruelty, and to show his family and the many others on death row that we grieve, rage, and stand with them. Till Nagen is alive, we fight on.
This one week, we have to do everything in our power to demand that the state #stoptheexecution. If enough of us speak up, there is still a chance the President and Cabinet can be moved to grant Nagen clemency,” says the event page on Facebook.
Ms Kokila also wrote in a Facebook post:
“Nagen’s sister Sarmila called us, sobbing. This is what she said ‘Just yesterday, I spent all day at the temple, praying for Nagen once again. I got to speak to him for 15 minutes on the phone, and told him about the prayers. He said he dreams of tasting the temple food once again. He was very upset because with the borders opening up and in-person visits now a possibility, the prison was going to stop his phone calls to his family.
“I don’t know how I will get by without hearing your children’s voices. I’ll beg them for permission and call you one last time next Sunday. I want to hear our grandmother’s voice too,’ he said to me.”
More information about the vigil for Nagaenthran may be found here.
Earlier this month, about 400 Singaporeans and permanent residents took part in a protest against the death penalty at Speakers’ Corner in Hong Lim Park. The park had only recently reopened after being closed for two years as part of pandemic curbs.
On March 30, Singapore carried out its first execution in more than two years. Abdul Kahar bin Othman, 68, had been convicted on two charges of trafficking diamorphine in 2013 and given the death penalty two years later.
Nagaenthran’s last-minute appeal for a stay of execution was turned down on Mar 29.
On death row, since he was found guilty in 2010 of smuggling 42.7 gm of heroin, Nagaenthran, 34, had been in international news headlines for months, ahead of his scheduled execution on Nov 10, 2021. It was postponed after he tested positive for Covid-19 a day earlier.
The International Bar Association, European Union, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch are among the organisations that have protested his execution, as well as local activists, including Ms Kirsten Han and Ms Annamalai.
On Friday (Apr 22), another execution date was announced.
Datchinamurthy Kataiah, 36, who has been in a neighbouring cell to Nagaenthran for many years, is scheduled for judicial execution on April 29.
In 2015, he was sentenced to hang, after having been found guilty of smuggling 44.96gm of diamorphine into Singapore in 2011.
The excerpt from the notice of execution that Datchinamurthy’s family received was published on the Facebook page of Wake Up, Singapore.
/TISG
Abolish Death Penalty Protest: Over 400 Singaporeans & PRs showed up in solidarity