The Malaysian Insight

NAGAENTHRAN Dharmalingam, a Malaysian with an intellectual disability on death row in Singapore for drug trafficking, will be executed next Wednesday, lawyer M. Ravi said.

“Just received the heartbreaking news that Nagaenthran will be hanged next Wednesday,” said Ravi in a LinkedIn post.

Lawyers for Liberty adviser N. Surendran has also confirmed the matter to The Malaysian Insight.

Nagaenthran, 34, has an IQ of 69, a lower than average score that qualifies for intellectual disability.

He was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to death in 2011 under the Misuse of Drugs Act for illegally importing 42.7g of diamorphine.

He was caught with a bundle of heroin strapped to his thigh when entering the city-state from Malaysia via the Woodlands checkpoint in April 2009.

He was originally scheduled to be hanged in November but the plan sparked criticism due to his IQ level and his lawyer mounted an 11th-hour challenge at the Court of Appeal.

Ravi in his LinkedIn post today said Singapore “will never be able to recover from the disgrace it’s going to face internationally in hanging an intellectually disabled person”.

“Everything from the beginning is wrong about this case. Even the government psychiatrist at the trial admitted that Nagaenthran suffered from an abnormality of mind,” he said.

In November the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had written to the president of Singapore, appealing for clemency for Nagaenthran.

In the same month, Nagaenthran had his stay of execution extended after he tested positive for Covid-19.

On March 29, Nagaenthran lost his final appeal agains the death penalty when his case was dismissed by the Singapore Court of Appeal. The court had ruled that international laws on the execution of disabled persons do not apply. – April 20, 2022.