Singapore court rejects intellectually disabled man’s final appeal against execution for drug smuggling
A Singapore court on Tuesday rejected a final appeal by a man sentenced to death for drug trafficking, following a campaign by his lawyers who said the trial violated international laws as the man has intellectual disabilities.
The ruling ends all legal avenues to stop his execution and supporters say he could be hanged within days.
The case has drawn international attention — including from the United Nations, Malaysia’s Prime Minister, and British billionaire Richard Branson — and put the city-state’s zero-tolerance drug laws back under scrutiny.
Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, a 34-year-old Malaysian citizen, was arrested in 2009 for bringing 42.7 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin into Singapore. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2010.
He appealed on the basis of mental disability and for his lawyers to start judicial review proceedings to halt the death sentence.
“The Court of Appeal has just dismissed the application and considered the appeal an abuse of process and that international law does not apply. Nagaenthran who is mentally disabled is due to be hanged possibly in the next few days,” said M. Ravi, who was part of Dharmalingam’s legal team, in a Facebook post-Tuesday.
In his ruling, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said there was “no admissible evidence showing any decline in the appellant’s mental condition after the commission of the offense.”
“The case mounted by the appellant’s counsel was baseless and without merit, both as a matter of fact and of law,” Menon said, according to court documents.
The court also dismissed a request for Dharmalingam to be assessed by an independent panel of psychiatrists.
After his family was notified of his impending execution in October 2021, Dharmalingam’s lawyers launched a last-minute constitutional challenge. The High Court dismissed their bid in November but granted a stay of execution so the decision could be appealed.
That appeal hearing was then postponed because Dharmalingam contracted Covid-19. Tuesday’s verdict on the appeal exhausts Dharmalingam’s legal options.
Anti-death penalty group Reprieve said Dharmalingam is facing imminent execution unless he is pardoned by Singapore’s President Halimah Yacob.
“We are extremely concerned about rushed hearings and decisions in this case, in violation of Nagaenthran’s fair trial rights. Nagaenthran should be protected from the death penalty because of his intellectual disability,” Reprieve director Maya Foa said in a statement.
“The heart-wrenching fact that he believes he is going home to his family and talks about sharing home-cooked meals with them shows that he does not fully understand he faces execution and lacks the mental competency to be executed.”
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES