His sister said that after a lengthy legal battle and despite numerous international appeals against the sentence, a Malaysian man with a mental disorder was executed today in Singapore.
Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was arrested in 2009 at the age of 21 for transporting 43 grams of heroin to Singapore, which has one of the toughest drug laws in the world. He was sentenced to death a year later.
His plan to execute this sparked a wave of international condemnation from the United Nations to the European Union and British businessman Richard Branson of the Virgin group.
However, ten years of legal struggles were ignored after appeals by Singapore courts were dismissed and the president refused to show mercy to the defendant.
“It is unbelievable that Singapore continued the execution despite international calls to spare his life,” his sister Sarmila Dharmalingam told AFP in Malaysia, where the body will be repatriated.
“We are deeply saddened by the execution of our brother and the family is in shock,” he said.
“Violation of International Law”
Hundreds of people took part in two extraordinary demonstrations against the death penalty in Singapore. Vigils and protests were also held in Malaysia, where the king and prime minister joined in on requests for amnesty for the accused.
Reprieve, an NGO campaigning against the death penalty, said Nagaenthran was “the victim of a tragic mistake of justice”.
“Hanging a mentally handicapped and mentally ill (…) man is unfair and is a clear violation of international law,” said director Maya Foa.
The execution was postponed in November as a last resort, which argued that the execution of a mentally disabled person violated international law.
His defense claimed that he had an IQ of 69, which was considered a deficiency and that he was pressured to commit the crime. However, authorities claimed that the man was aware of his actions.
His mother filed a desperate last-minute appeal on Tuesday, but was quickly dismissed by a judge.
In an interview with AFP on Tuesday, Richard Branson urged Singaporean President Halimah Yacob to reach an amnesty deal for Nagaenthran, describing the death penalty as “inhumane”.
Two years later, Singapore hanged a drug dealer last month. Activist groups now fear a wave of executions of other death row prisoners.
This low-crime region resists the abolition of the death penalty and claims it’s what makes it one of the safest places in Asia.
source: Noticias
