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Singapore executes mentally-disabled Malaysian Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam after court dismisses last-ditch appeal
- The 34-year-old, who had an IQ of 69, was in prison in the city state since being detained in 2009 for bringing in 43 grams of heroin
- He was hanged on Wednesday after his mother’s last-ditch legal challenge failed, as did appeals by the UN, British billionaire Richard Branson and others
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Kok Xinghuiin Singapore
A Malaysian man found guilty of drug trafficking was executed on Wednesday in Singapore after a last-ditch legal challenge by his mother failed in a high-profile case that had attracted international calls for clemency.
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The family of Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam and anti-death penalty campaigners confirmed the execution took place early on Wednesday morning.
Nagaenthran, 34, had been on death row for more than a decade for trafficking 43 grams (1.5 oz) of heroin into Singapore, which has some of the world’s toughest narcotics laws. His brother Navin Kumar, 22, told Reuters by telephone the execution had been carried out and said the funeral would be held in the town of Ipoh in Malaysia.
The case had attracted global attention as campaigners – including the British billionaire Richard Branson – decried authorities proceeding with the hanging despite the fact that Nagaenthran had the mental age of a minor.
“Nagaenthran Dharmalingam’s name will go down in history as the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice,” said Mary Foa, the director of the Britain-based anti-death penalty charity Reprieve.
Foa described the execution as a “flagrant violation of international laws that Singapore has chosen to sign up to”, adding that “unprecedented” protests in the country against the hanging signalled shifting public opinion about capital punishment.
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Pushback against death penalty in Singapore for intellectually-disabled man
Pushback against death penalty in Singapore for intellectually-disabled man
Singapore’s Court of Appeal previously described his defence as “hopeless” and lawyers’ claims of him being mentally disabled as without any legal or factual basis. A legal challenge filed by Nagaenthran’s mother was dismissed by the court on Tuesday.
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