Nagaenthran to be hanged next Wednesday

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian death row inmate Nagaenthran Dharmalingam is scheduled to be executed in Singapore next week, says lawyer M. Ravi.

“Just received the heart-breaking news that Nagaenthren will be hanged next Wednesday,” he said.

Ravi, who was Nagenthran’s former lawyer, has remained critical of the case, saying that even a government psychiatrist had admitted during the trial that Nagaenthran, 34, suffered from an abnormality of the mind.

The execution comes after a Singapore court on March 29 rejected his final appeal against the death sentence imposed for drug trafficking.

Nagaenthran was detained in 2009 and convicted of trafficking 42.72g of heroin in 2010, a crime punishable by the mandatory death penalty.

His appeal against his conviction and sentence was dismissed in 2011.

In 2017, the High Court in Singapore ruled that Nagaenthran did not qualify to be given life imprisonment based on evidence from four psychological and psychiatric experts.

Stop the execution: A filepic of an activist holding a poster urging against the execution of Nagaenthran in Kuala Lumpur recently. — Reuters

Nagaenthran’s case drew public attention in October last year after a letter from the Singapore Prison Service of his pending execution on Nov 10 was sent to his mother in Ipoh.

The letter, which was posted on social media, drew calls for clemency against the death sentence.

A last-minute effort to halt the execution was mounted by his former lawyer Ravi who contended that Nagaenthran had the “mental age” of a person below 18 years old.

However, efforts to gain leave to start judicial review proceedings challenging Nagaenthran’s death sentence were dismissed by the High Court.