As Malaysian drug trafficker Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam seems certain to hang, after his final appeal was turned down on Tuesday, his execution is prompting some to urge ending the death penalty altogether, while others support the Apex court’s decision.
On death row since he was found guilty in 2010, Nagaenthran, 34, had been in international news headlines for months, ahead of his scheduled execution last year. He was to have been hanged on Nov 10, 2021, but tested positive for Covid-19 a day earlier, and the execution was postponed.
Nagaenthran is said to have an IQ of 69 and to suffer from an intellectual disability. The International Bar Association, European Union, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch are among the organisations that have advocated against his execution.
Many have pleaded for clemency on his behalf, including Malaysia’s King Al-Sultan Abdullah and Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, rapporteurs from the United Nations and British business magnate Richard Branson, among others.
His lawyers have filed several appeals over the years, all of which have been dismissed. A clemency petition from his mother, Panchalai, was submitted to President Halimah Yakob, but it was turned down.
On March 29, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon in the judgment on the case that it was “baseless and without merit both as a matter of fact and of law,” and added that there was no admissible evidence that showed that Nagaenthran’s mental condition had declined, The Straits Times reported.
His former lawyer, Mr M Ravi, had said that the condemned man’s mental age was that of a person under the age of 18, but CJ Menon said that this seemed to be based on a single interaction Mr Ravi had with his then client on Nov 2, which lasted under half an hour.
The Chief Justice underlined that Nagaenthran has been given due process under law, adding, “in our judgment, these proceedings constitute a blatant and egregious abuse of the court’s processes.”
Netizens are divided on the Apex court’s judgment. There are those who disagree with the judgment, and believe that it is time to end capital punishment altogether.
But others expressed support for the decision from the Court of Appeal. Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam had said on Mar 3 that most people in Singapore still support the death penalty, citing early findings from a 2021 survey.
It is not yet known when Nagaethran’s execution will be carried out.
On Wednesday (March 29), Singapore carried out its first execution since in more than two years. Abdul Kahar bin Othman, 68, had been convicted on two charges of trafficking diamorphine in 2013 and was given the death penalty two years later.
The Guardian reported that the families of those who are scheduled for judicial execution “fear the authorities are now pushing ahead with hangings to free up space on death row.”
Activist Kirsten Han, who has been fighting against the death penalty for at least a decade, wrote about Abdul Kahar in a Facebook post on Wednesday:
“After a childhood of poverty and hunger in what was, and might still be, one of Singapore’s poorest neighbourhoods, Kahar was incarcerated multiple times in prison and the state-run Drug Rehabilitation Centre, but never actually provided with the help that he needed.
“Every release was a stressful experience without follow-up support; such pressure can often push people with substance use disorder to relapse into familiar patterns, which then leads to more punishment, more incarceration, and still limited or no help.
“This morning, after decades of failing to help Kahar out of overwhelmingly difficult circumstances — circumstances that we often put him in — Singapore failed him one final time.” /TISG
Malaysian King appealed to President Halimah Yacob for clemency in Nagaenthran’s case