Mentally handicapped Malaysian executed in Singapore

A mentally disabled Malaysian man was executed in Singapore on Wednesday, his sister said, after a long legal battle and despite a storm of international criticism.

Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was arrested in 2009 for trafficking a small amount of heroin in the city-state, which has some of the strictest drug laws in the world, and sentenced to death the following year.

The decision to hang him had drawn widespread criticism due to concerns about his intellectual disability.

The United Nations, the European Union and the British billionaire Richard Branson condemned this decision in particular.

For more than a decade, Mr. Nagaenthran lobbied for legal challenges, but these were dismissed by Singapore courts, and the city-state president rejected appeals for clemency.

The 34-year-old man was executed in the early morning, his sister Sarmila Dharmalingam told AFP.

“It is unbelievable that Singapore carried out the execution despite international calls to spare his life,” she said, from Malaysia.

“We are extremely saddened by the execution of our brother and the family is in shock.”

Reprieve, an NGO campaigning against the death penalty, said Mr Nagaenthran was “the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice”.

A “cruel and inhuman” sentence

The hanging of a mentally handicapped man “is unjustifiable and a flagrant violation of international law to which Singapore has chosen to subscribe”, said the association’s director, Maya Foa.

The European Union (EU) on Wednesday called the sentence “cruel and inhumane” and urged Singapore to “adopt a moratorium on all executions” and abolish the death penalty.

The death penalty “has no deterrent effect on crime and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity”, said Nabila Massrali, the Union’s foreign policy spokesperson.

Mr Nagaenthran’s hanging was originally scheduled for November, but was postponed after an appeal on the grounds that executing a mentally disabled person is against international law.

He had been arrested at the age of 21 while trying to enter Singapore with a pack of heroin weighing some 43 grams, the equivalent of about three tablespoons.

His supporters claimed he had an IQ of 69, a level recognized as a disability, and that he committed the crime under duress.

But authorities defended his conviction, saying court rulings showed he knew what he was doing at the time of the offence.

Her mother launched a desperate last-minute appeal on Tuesday, but it was quickly dismissed by a judge.

In an interview with AFP on Tuesday, Richard Branson urged Singapore President Halimah Yacob to grant clemency to Nagaenthran, calling the death penalty “inhuman”.

After a hiatus of more than two years, Singapore resumed executions last month, with the hanging of another convicted drug smuggler.

Activists now fear authorities could embark on a wave of hangings, with several other death row inmates having recently had their appeals dismissed.