Nagaenthran wearing his favourite outfit. (@kixes)
Singapore has executed Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a 34-year-old Tamil Malaysian man who has an IQ of 69 - a level that indicates an intellectual disability – despite global outcry over the sentencing.
Campaigners have called his killing a “tragic miscarriage of justice”.
Despite frantic efforts from his legal team, including a last-ditch appeal for a stay of execution by his mother on Tuesday, Singaporean authorities executed Dharmalingam on Wednesday.
During his final court appearance, where judges dismissed the stay of execution, Dharmalingam made a last-minute request via a translator to “spend some time with my family members”.
“I’m placing this request so I can hold my family members’ hands... Here in court, Your Honour, I would like to hold my family members’ hands, not in prison. May I please have permission to hold their hands here?”
The request was approved. A slit in the glass in the courtroom separating Dharmalingam allowed him to hold hands with his mother.
Read more: ‘May I hold my family’s hands?’ – Final request from disabled Tamil man moments before execution
His cries of “amma” – or mother in Tamil – could be heard around the courtroom, reports Reuters.
Singaporean anti-death penalty activist Kirsten Han tweeted a photograph of Dharmalingam earlier today.
“Before an execution, family members are allowed to buy clothes for the prisoner to wear at a photo shoot,” she said. “The photos are given to the family shortly before, or after execution. Navin says this was Nagen’s favourite outfit and photo.”
The Tamil Malaysian was convicted on charges of carrying a meagre 42.72 grams of heroin into Singapore in 2009, a country that has received widespread criticism over its harsh drug laws. He has been imprisoned ever since, and on death row since 2010.
In 2009, Nagaenthran was reportedly working as a welder in Malaysia and was desperately trying to find extra money to support his father, who was due to have a heart operation. The Tamil Malaysian man reportedly approached a man asking for a loan of roughly £100, with campaigners stating he was subsequently coerced into smuggling the package of heroin.
His family have described him as vulnerable.
Nagaenthran's mother who travelled to Singapore and lodged a last-ditch appeal. She represented herself via a translator.
His mother Panchalai Supermaniam said his mental state had deteriorated during his imprisonment on death row, where he was kept in solitary confinement, and that he did not seem to understand that he would be executed. Instead, he would talk about going home and eating his mother’s cooking, she said.
"Nagen's last days were spent, like much of the last decade, in the torturous isolation of solitary confinement," said Reprieve's Director Maya Foa. "Our thoughts are with Nagen's family, who never stopped fighting for him; their pain is unimaginable."
His body will now reportedly be sent back to Malaysia where a funeral is to be held in the town of Ipoh.
Nagaenthran Dharmalingam pictured with his nephew.
The case had attracted global outrage, including from EU representatives and UN experts to the British billionaire Richard Branson and actor Stephen Fry.
“Capital punishment in Singapore disproportionately targets drug mules rather than the drug lords that traffic or manipulate them. Most of its victims are, like Nagen, poor, vulnerable and from marginalised communities. This is a broken system,” said Foa.
"You may break us, but not defeat us. Our fight against the death penalty continues." Om Shanti, may your soul rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/034zpO1ssA
— M.Ravi (@MRavilaw) April 26, 2022
On March 30 this year, Singapore hung Abdul Kahar Othman, the first person to be executed by the country in two years, also over drug-related offences.
On Friday, authorities have scheduled the execution of another Tamil Malaysian man Datchinamurthy Kataiah, who was found guilty of trafficking some 45g of heroin in 2011. Singaporean authorities denied him clemency.
See more from The Times here, the BBC here, The Guardian here, Reuters here and Al Jazeera here.
