NAGAENTHRAN K. Dharmalingam, the Malaysian man found guilty of drug trafficking in Singapore has been executed, says his family.
According to Reuters, Nagaenthran’s brother Navin Kumar, 22, said by telephone the execution had been carried out and the funeral would be held in Ipoh.
Nagaenthran, 34, who was sentenced to death in 2010 for trafficking 42.72g of heroin into Singapore, was executed after the Court of Appeal had dismissed a last-ditch legal challenge filed by his mother to set aside her son’s conviction and death sentence.
The execution of the sentence against Nagaenthran came after a Singapore court had rejected his final appeal against the death sentence imposed for drug trafficking on March 29.
His appeal against conviction and sentence were dismissed in 2011.
In 2017, the High Court in Singapore ruled that the 34-year-old Malaysian did not qualify to be given life imprisonment based on evidence from four psychological and psychiatric experts.
On Monday (April 25) it was reported that Nagaenthran’s mother Panchalai Supermaniam had filed a final legal challenge in Singapore’s Court of Appeal to set aside her son’s conviction and death sentence.
According to Lawyers for Liberty chief coordinator Zaid Malek Panchalai had to file the case in court herself with assistance from friends and activists and without the assistance of a legal firm as she was unable to secure the services of a lawyer in the republic to file the challenge.
Zaid said that it has become “very difficult” to secure the services of Singaporean lawyers to take such a legal challenge as lawyers “have been consistently penalised and heavily fined” by the Attorney-General’s Chambers and judiciary for doing so.
The basis of the challenge was that Judge Sundaresh Menon who presided over and dismissed Nagaenthran’s appeals was also the AG who prosecuted Nagaenthran and secured his conviction.
Zaid had also urged the Singapore Government and its President Halimah Yacob to heed international human rights norms and immediately halt the scheduled hanging of the mentally disabled Malaysian. – April 27, 2022
Main photo credit: Reuters
