Disabled Indian-origin Malaysian man to be hanged in Singapore next week after losing final appeal

Kuala Lumpur: An Indian-origin Malaysian man with a mental disability and convicted of drug trafficking is scheduled to be executed in Singapore's Changi prison on Wednesday, after losing a final appeal, a media report said on Thursday.

Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, was detained in 2009 and convicted of trafficking 42.72 grams of heroin in 2010, a crime punishable by the mandatory death penalty under Singapore law.

"Just received the heart-breaking news that Nagaenthren will be hanged next Wednesday,” Malaysian daily The Star quoted Dharmalingam's former lawyer in Singapore M Ravi as saying.

The execution comes after a Singapore court on March 29 rejected his final appeal against the death sentence imposed for drug trafficking. His appeal against his conviction and sentence was dismissed in 2011.

In 2017, the High Court in Singapore ruled that Dharmalingam did not qualify to be given life imprisonment based on evidence from four psychological and psychiatric experts. His case drew public attention in October last year after a letter from the Singapore Prison Service of his pending execution on November 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 Ravi, who contended that Dharmalingam had the “mental age” of a person below 18 years old.

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