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 is because of be executed by hanging on Wednesday.
Dharmalingam’s attorneys and rights teams preventing to save lots of him say Singapore is violating worldwide legislation by executing an individual with a psychological impairment. Legal professionals are in search of a prohibitory order in opposition to the execution at a listening to on Monday, having exhausted all different authorized appeals. A petition to the President for clemency was additionally unsuccessful.
Nevertheless, his attorneys argue that Dharmalingam mustn’t have been sentenced to demise below 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 demise row and through that point his situation has additional deteriorated, his attorneys stated.
“He has not an excellent sense of what’s taking place round him,” stated 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 acquired no actual clue of what will occur to him.”
Surendran stated executing Dharmalingam “could be tantamount to executing a baby.”
Singapore has among the strictest drug legal guidelines on the planet. Trafficking a specific amount of medicine — for instance, 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin — ends in a compulsory demise sentence below the Misuse of Medicine Act. It was solely lately — and after Dharmalingam’s case started — the legislation was amended to permit for a convicted individual to flee the demise penalty in sure circumstances.
Dharmalingam was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to demise by Singapore’s Excessive Courtroom in 2010. His first enchantment was dismissed a yr later. One other enchantment after Singapore amended its drug legislation was once more rejected in 2018.
The court docket argued Dharmalingam transported medicine “so as 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 stated Dharmalingam was “constantly altering his account of his training {qualifications}, ostensibly to mirror decrease academic {qualifications} every time he was interviewed.”
“This was ‘the working of a legal thoughts, weighing the dangers and countervailing advantages related to the legal 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 stated in its assertion, quoting the court docket’s resolution.
Public stress
Greater than 62,000 individuals have signed a petition urging Singapore’s President Halimah Yacob to situation a pardon. Final week, dozens of activists protested exterior Parliament within the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty Worldwide, Anti-Loss of life 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 demise penalty, actually not individuals with mental or psychosocial disabilities.”
Surendran, the lawyer, stated the execution order was “sickening past perception.”
“We’ll work till the final minute to save lots of Nagaenthran however in fact, as you may see time is operating brief,” he stated.
Household ‘shocked’
The letter stipulated solely 5 members of Dharmalingam’s household could be allowed to enter Singapore and would want to take care of a listing of Covid rules.
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 stated.
“They see a totally totally different individual, they don’t seem to be in a position to get by to him,” he stated.
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 stated. “It has been very troublesome for the household.”
Surendran stated the clock was ticking however they’d do every thing they will to save lots of Dharmalingam.
If the execution goes forward, Singapore could be in breach “not solely of customary worldwide legislation, but additionally their very own obligations below the UN conference on the rights of disabled individual, which they’ve signed and ratified,” Surendran stated.
