Singapore to hang mentally disabled man next week
SINGAPORE: A mentally disabled Malaysian man will be hanged in Singapore next week after losing a last-ditch appeal, his sister said Wednesday, despite an international outcry about his case. Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was arrested in 2009 for trafficking a small amount of heroin into the city-state, which has some of the world’s toughest drugs laws, and handed a death sentence the following year.
But the plan to hang him sparked widespread criticism due to concerns about his intellectual disabilities, with the European Union and British billionaire Richard Branson among those condemning it. After a years-long legal battle, the 34-year-old lost his final appeal last month, when judges rejected arguments that executing a man with mental disabilities contravenes international law.
His family has now been informed he will be executed on Wednesday next week, his sister Sarmila Dharmalingam told AFP. Family members, including his mother and three siblings, will travel to the citystate to see him beforehand, she said.
M. Ravi, a Singapore-based human rights lawyer assisting in the case, said the news of Nagaenthran’s looming execution was “heartbreaking”. “The Singapore state will never be able to recover from the disgrace it’s going to face internationally in hanging an intellectually disabled person,” he said in a social media post. Last month, the city-state conducted its first execution since 2019 when it hanged a drug trafficker, and fears are growing that several more people will be put to death in the coming months.