Singapore High Court grants stay of execution to Malaysian on death row (Updated)

SINGAPORE: The Singapore High Court today granted a stay of execution to a Malaysian who is to be executed on Wednesday (Nov 10) for a drug trafficking conviction.

The decision was posted on Facebook by M. Ravi, the lawyer to the man in death row Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, 33.

“The High Court has just ordered a stay of execution pending the hearing of the appeal to the Court of Appeal against the decision of the High Court,“ he said.

The constitutional challenge against his execution was heard via zoom today, two days before his Nov 10 execution date.

Nagaenthran was arrested in 2009 for bringing 42.72 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin into Singapore.

According to Ravi of K K Cheng Law Llc, the Court gave a fair hearing which was presided by Justice See Kee Oon.

The hearing started at 2.30pm while the Judgement was delivered at 4pm.

On Sunday (Nov 7), it was reported that Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has written to his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong seeking leniency in this case.

The report said Ismail Sabri had asked the Singapore government to look into staying the execution and seeks a fresh application for presidential clemency.

Nagaenthran’s lawyers claim that he is intellectually disabled. He was sentenced to death by the High Court on Nov 22, 2010. The process of appeal went through to the final stage, and his application for presidential clemency was rejected on June 1, 2020.

Meanwhile, Nagaenthran’s Malaysian counsel N.Surendran said that the Court has fixed tomorrow (Nov 9), 2.30pm for the hearing of the appeal.

According to Surendran who is also the Advisor at Lawyers for Liberty, another application filed today by Nagaenthran’s lawyers for a psychiatric assessment of his deteriorating mental state has also been fixed at the same time tomorrow.

“If both matters are dismissed, then the stay order would no longer have effect,” he said in a statement made available to Bernama tonight.

Surendran on behalf of Lawyers for Liberty strongly urged that Nagaenthran’s lawyers be given adequate and reasonable time to prepare their case which involves complex issues and the life of a mentally disabled human being.

“And meanwhile the stay of execution granted today must be maintained until these hearings are properly and fairly disposed off,” he added.

-Bernama