‘He’s got an IQ of 69’: Malaysian man to be hanged in Singapore for possessing 1.5 ounces of heroin

November 2, 2021

Lawyers are making last-resort efforts to save a mentally impaired Malaysian man from being hanged in Singapore for drug charges next week.

What’s happening: Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 33, is scheduled to face execution by hanging on Nov. 10, and his lawyers are now planning to make a final appeal this week to save him, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

“We will be filing an application in court [on Tuesday]. When we file it we will serve it on the Attorney-General,” M Ravi, a Singaporean lawyer who is representing 25 death row inmates, including Dharmalingam, told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Dharmalingam’s legal team was unsuccessful in their attempt to appeal against the Singaporean court’s ruling. They also appealed to Singapore President Halimah Yacob but to no avail.
Despite a diagnosis by a Singaporean psychiatrist, the court still pushed the death sentence on Dharmalingam, arguing that he had “conflicting accounts of the reasons for his offending.”
In addition to Singapore, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has also asked other nations not to impose the death sentence on people “suffering from any form of mental disorder.”
Human Rights Watch Asia Division Deputy Director Phil Robertson said, “Going forward with this execution would be outrageous and unacceptable, and Singapore should stop it now before it’s too late.”
“We have been calling upon Singapore not to execute Nagaenthran. We’ve been asking them to commute the sentence,” Malaysian lawyer N Surendran said. “He is intellectually impaired. He’s got an IQ of 69.”

What happened: Dharmalingam was arrested with 42.72 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin strapped to his leg in 2009 after setting foot in Singapore from Malaysia. His lawyers argued that he “acted as a drug mule under duress from a friend who had assaulted him and threatened to kill his girlfriend.”

“While we recognize the danger since he was on death row, we didn’t expect even Singapore to stoop this low, to be very frank,” Surendran said. “It seems a completely heartless and mechanical way of proceeding with things.”
Around 20,000 people have reportedly signed an online petition, set up by human rights advocate Olivia Seow on Thursday, asking President Halimah Yacob for clemency, Coconuts Kuala Lumpur reported.
Right groups such as Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) and Malaysia’s Lawyers For Liberty, in which Surendran is an advisor, condemned Singapore for its ruling.
“The execution of any person with mental or intellectual disabilities is extremely unconscionable and reprehensible,” ADPAN executive coordinator Dobby Chew said in a statement on Friday. “The person would be unlikely to have the appropriate capacity to stand trial or even appreciate the severity of their predicaments.”

Featured Image via Change.org

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