SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A group of U.N. human rights experts have appealed to Singapore to halt an execution scheduled this week of a Malaysian who smuggled drugs into the city-state, on the grounds that he has intellectual disabilities.
Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 33, is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday, but the court stayed his execution pending an appeal to be heard on Tuesday. Singapore has some of the world’s toughest laws on drugs.
The court had earlier dismissed an argument that hanging Nagaenthran would violate Singapore’s constitution because he was intellectually challenged.
“We are seriously concerned that, if the appeal is dismissed, he could still be executed imminently,” the experts said in a statement.
The U.N. experts called on Singapore to commute the death sentence against Nagaenthran, in line with international human rights law.
Nagaenthran was detained in April 2009 for trafficking into Singapore about 42.72 grammes of diamorphine, or pure heroin, which was strapped to his thigh. He was sentenced to death.
His lawyer M Ravi, and activists say Nagaenthran’s IQ (intellectual quotient) was found to be at 69, a level recognised as a mental disability, and he has other disorders that affect his decision-making and impulse control.
Authorities previously said Singapore courts were satisfied that Nagaenthran knew what he was doing when he committed the offence.
The case has attracted international attention including from British billionaire and capital punishment opponent Richard Branson, who called on Singapore to spare Nagaenthran from hanging.
Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had also written to his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong seeking leniency for Nagaenthran, Bernama news agency reported, without citing sources.
(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Martin Petty)
