Nagaenthran Dharmalingam: Campaigners urge Singapore not to execute man with intellectual disabilities
Nagaenthran Ok Dharmalingam, a 33-year-old Malaysian man, was arrested in 2009 for bringing 42.7 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin into Singapore. He was resulting from be executed by hanging on Wednesday.
On Monday, the Excessive Court docket ordered a keep of execution “pending the listening to of the attraction to the Court docket of Attraction in opposition to the choice of the Excessive Court docket,” his lawyer in Singapore M. Ravi posted on Fb. Legal professionals had sought a prohibitory order in opposition to the execution, having exhausted all different authorized appeals. A petition to the President for clemency was additionally unsuccessful.
It’s as but unclear what the subsequent steps are.
Dharmalingam’s legal professionals and rights teams combating to save lots of him say Singapore is violating worldwide legislation by executing an individual with a psychological impairment.
Nonetheless, his legal professionals argue that Dharmalingam mustn’t have been sentenced to loss of life underneath Singaporean legislation as a result of he was incapable of understanding his actions. A psychologist assessed his IQ to be 69, which is internationally acknowledged as an mental incapacity. At his trial, the protection additionally argued he had extreme consideration deficit hyperactivity dysfunction (ADHD), borderline mental functioning, and extreme alcohol use dysfunction.
Dharmalingam has spent a decade on loss of life row and through that point his situation has additional deteriorated, his legal professionals mentioned.
“He has not an excellent sense of what’s occurring round him,” mentioned N. Surendran, a Malaysian lawyer who’s representing Dharmalingam’s household, and adviser to Malaysian NGO Legal professionals for Liberty. “He’s disoriented. He is obtained no actual clue of what will occur to him.”
Surendran mentioned executing Dharmalingam “can be tantamount to executing a toddler.”
Singapore has among the strictest drug legal guidelines on the planet. Trafficking a specific amount of medication — for instance, 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin — leads to a compulsory loss of life sentence underneath the Misuse of Medication Act. It was solely lately — and after Dharmalingam’s case started — the legislation was amended to permit for a convicted individual to flee the loss of life penalty in sure circumstances.
Dharmalingam was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to loss of life by Singapore’s Excessive Court docket in 2010. His first attraction was dismissed a 12 months later. One other attraction after Singapore amended its drug legislation was once more rejected in 2018.
The courtroom argued Dharmalingam transported medication “with a view to repay his money owed” and he knew it was illegal so he “tried to hide the bundle by strapping it to his left thigh.” It additionally mentioned Dharmalingam was “constantly altering his account of his schooling {qualifications}, ostensibly to replicate decrease academic {qualifications} every time he was interviewed.”
“This was ‘the working of a prison thoughts, weighing the dangers and countervailing advantages related to the prison conduct in query.’ Nagaenthran thought-about the dangers, balanced it in opposition to the reward he had hoped he would get, and determined to take the danger,” the ministry mentioned in its assertion, quoting the courtroom’s choice.
Public stress
Greater than 62,000 individuals have signed a petition urging Singapore’s President Halimah Yacob to subject a pardon. Final week, dozens of activists protested exterior Parliament within the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty Worldwide, Anti-Demise Penalty Asia Community (ADPAN) and different rights teams have additionally referred to as on the Singapore authorities to halt the execution.
“Singapore ought to commute Nagaenthran Dharmalingam’s sentence and amend its legal guidelines to make sure that nobody is subjected to the loss of life penalty, definitely not individuals with mental or psychosocial disabilities.”
Surendran, the lawyer, mentioned the execution order was “sickening past perception.”
“We’ll work till the final minute to save lots of Nagaenthran however after all, as you may see time is operating brief,” he mentioned.
Household ‘shocked’
The letter stipulated solely 5 members of Dharmalingam’s household can be allowed to enter Singapore and would want to deal with an inventory of Covid laws.
A number of members of the family who managed to get to Singapore and meet with Dharmalingam in Changi jail are “shocked” at his situation, Surendran mentioned.
“They see a very totally different individual, they don’t seem to be capable of get by to him,” he mentioned.
It was additionally a “great problem” for them to journey to Singapore from Malaysia as a result of numerous monetary prices and Covid restrictions imposed, he mentioned. “It has been very tough for the household.”
If the execution goes forward, Singapore can be in breach “not solely of customary worldwide legislation, but additionally their very own obligations underneath the UN conference on the rights of disabled individual, which they’ve signed and ratified,” Surendran mentioned.
