Singapore executes mentally challenged Indian-origin Malaysian drug trafficker
Singapore (PTI): Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a mentally challenged Indian-origin Malaysian man found guilty of drug trafficking, was executed in Singapore on Wednesday, his family said, after a top court dismissed a last-ditch legal challenge from his mother in a controversial case that caught global attention and attracted calls for clemency.
Dharmalingam, 34, was arrested in 2009 for trafficking 42.72 grams of heroin into Singapore, which has some of the world's toughest drugs laws, and was handed a death sentence the following year.
He was caught at Woodlands Checkpoint (a causeway link with Peninsular Malaysia) while entering Singapore, with the bundle of drugs strapped to his thigh.
His brother Navin Kumar told Malaysia's national news agency Bernama the execution was carried out on Wednesday morning and the funeral would be held in the town of Ipoh in Malaysia.
Dharmalingam was on death row for more than a decade and exhausted all legal recourse. He was first scheduled to be hanged on November 10 last year but filed a last-minute challenge.
His case was highly controversial as he was assessed by a medical expert to have an IQ of 69 - a level that indicates an intellectual disability.
He spent more than a decade mounting legal challenges but they were dismissed by Singapore's courts. A push for presidential clemency was also rejected last year.
"The Court of Appeal found that this was the working of a criminal mind, weighing the risks and countervailing benefits associated with the criminal conduct in question," said Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs in an earlier statement.
His mother, who came to the Singapore court from northern Malaysia, failed in her last-minute appeal to save her son on Tuesday.
Her last-minute application was dismissed by a three-judge Court of Appeal, comprising Justices Andrew Phang, Judith Prakash and Belinda Ang.
Justice Phang said the application was patently devoid of factual and legal merit, and was a clear continuation of tactics to drip-feed applications to prevent the sentence from being carried out, Singapore's The Straits Times newspaper reported.
The court said Dharmalingam has been given "due process in accordance with the law", prompting his relatives to break down in tears in court.
At the end of Tuesday's hearing, Dharmalingam and his family reached through a gap in a glass screen to grasp each others' hands tightly as they wept. His cries of "ma" could be heard around the courtroom, a media report said.
The attempt came nearly a month after a five-judge Court of Appeal, led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, on March 29 rejected Dharmalingam's last-ditch bid to challenge his death sentence, calling it a blatant and egregious abuse of the court's processes.
Earlier on Tuesday, before a packed courtroom, Madam Panchalai Supermaniam told the court through a Tamil interpreter: "I want my son back alive, Your Honour."
She said that she needed time to get a lawyer.
On March 1, Dharmalingam's lawyers argued that he was "not competent" to be executed, claiming he was mentally disabled. On March 29, the five-judge court said there was no admissible evidence showing any decline in his mental condition.
The only evidence offered by Dharmalingam's former lawyer M Ravi was a "self-serving" affidavit in which he speculated that the inmate had the mental age of a person under the age of 18, the report said.
Dismissing the mother's last-ditch legal challenge, Singapore's Attorney General's Chambers said on Wednesday, "This a last-minute application, brought just two days before the scheduled execution, and is the seventh application (not including appeals) brought by Nagaenthran after his appeal against conviction was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in 2011 more than 10 years ago".
"It is the latest attempt to abuse the court's processes and unjustifiably delay the carrying into effect of the lawful sentence imposed on Nagaenthran," it said.
The plan to execute him sparked widespread criticism due to concerns about his intellectual disabilities, with the United Nations, the European Union and British billionaire Richard Branson among those condemning it.
In November last year, it was reported that Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had written to his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong seeking leniency in this case.
Thousands of others had also signed a petition, arguing that the execution of a mentally ill person is prohibited under international human rights law.
The execution was on Tuesday condemned by rights group Reprieve, who called him the "victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice".
"Nagen's last days were spent, like much of the last decade, in the torturous isolation of solitary confinement," said Reprieve's Director Maya Foa.
"Our thoughts are with Nagen's family, who never stopped fighting for him; their pain is unimaginable."
He was supposed to be hanged on November 10, 2021, but found temporary respite on November 9 after the court was told he had tested positive for Covid-19 when he appeared for a last-bid attempt against his death sentence, Malaysia's official Bernama news agency reported.
Under Singapore's laws, those caught carrying more than 15 grams of heroin are subject to the death penalty.
Singapore resumed executions last month after a hiatus of more than two years, when it executed another drug trafficker.
Rest In Peace, Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam.
— Kirsten Han 韩俐颖 (@kixes) April 27, 2022
Before an execution, family members are allowed to buy clothes for the prisoner to wear at a photo shoot. The photos are given to the family shortly before, or after execution.
Navin says this was Nagen’s favourite outfit and photo. pic.twitter.com/wYXfqinIIn
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Tension grips Bangladesh after unrest over uprising leader’s death; vandalism at several places
Dhaka (PTI): Bangladesh interim government on Friday urged citizens to resist violence by “a few fringe elements” as the body of a prominent July Uprising leader, who died in Singapore six days after he was shot, reached the capital.
Various parts of the country were rocked Thursday night by attacks and vandalism, including stone-hurling at the Assistant Indian High Commissioner's residence in Chattogram, after Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus confirmed Sharif Osman Hadi's death in a televised address to the nation.
There were, however, no reports of fresh violence since Friday morning.
Hadi, one of the leaders who had taken part in the student-led protests last year – termed as July Uprising - and a candidate for the scheduled February 12 general elections, died while undergoing treatment at a Singapore hospital six days after he was shot by unidentified men.
Body of Hadi, who was the spokesperson of the Inqilab Mancha, arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) at around 6 pm on a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight, amid tight security and widespread public mourning, state-run news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) said quoting Biman General Manager (Public Relations) Boshra Islam.
Members of the Bangladesh Army, Armed Forces Battalion (AFB) and police were deployed in large numbers to maintain security when Hadi's body was taken out of the airport, it added.
Hadi's passing away at the Singapore General Hospital triggered widespread mourning across political circles, activists of Inqilab Mancha and the general public, BSS said.
Yunus has declared a one-day state mourning on Saturday following Hadi's death.
Earlier on Thursday, soon after Yunus' announcement, protesters took to the streets and attacked offices of leading newspapers, vandalised 32 Dhanmandi with hammers, and also demolished an office of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina's disbanded Awami League party in Rajshahi city.
Regarded as the centre point of Bangladesh’s pre-independence struggle for autonomy for decades, 32 Dhanmandi was largely demolished with excavators on February 5 this year. It was also set on fire soon after the August 5, 2024 fall of the then Awami League government and Hasina fleeing to India.
Protesters also hurled bricks and stones at the residence of the Assistant Indian High Commissioner in Chattogram at 1:30 am, but failed to cause any damage.
Police responded with tear gas and baton charges, dispersing the crowd and detaining 12 protesters. A few injuries were also reported.
Senior officials assured the assistant high commissioner of enhanced security.
In Dhaka, protesters attacked the office of a leading cultural group, Chhayanaut, and brought out the furniture, setting it on fire.
Sporadic violence was also reported from other parts of the country overnight.
Meanwhile, after the flight from Singapore landed in Dhaka, local media reports and videos shared on social media showed Hadi's followers lining up on both sides of the road from the airport to Shahbagh to receive him before his coffin was brought to the Dhaka University Central Mosque for a public meeting.
In a Facebook post, Inqilab Mancha announced that a janaza will be held in Bangladesh on Saturday after Zuhr prayers (afternoon) at Manik Mia Avenue in the capital.
Hadi was shot in the head last week by masked gunmen as he initiated his election campaign at central Dhaka’s Bijoynagar area. He died while undergoing treatment at a Singapore hospital after fighting for his life for six days.
On Thursday night, the National Citizen Party (NCP), a large offshoot of Students Against Discrimination (SAD) that led the July Uprising, which ousted the Hasina-led government, joined a mourning procession on the Dhaka University campus.
Supporters of the group chanted anti-India slogans alleging that Hadi’s assailants fled to India after committing the murder. They called upon the interim government to close the Indian high commission until they were returned.
“The interim government, until India returns assassins of Hadi Bhai, the Indian High Commission to Bangladesh will remain closed. Now or Never. We are in a war!” said Sarjis Alm, a key leader of NCP.
Starting Thursday through night, a group of people, believed to be part of the protesters, also attacked the offices of Bangla newspaper Prothom Alo’s office and the nearby Daily Star at the capital's Karwan Bazar, near the Shahbagh intersection.
Reports said they vandalised several floors while journalists and staff of the newspaper were trapped inside, and the mob ignited a fire in front of the building.
Critically ill former prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) strongly condemned the vandalism and said that the Yunus-led interim government will have to shoulder its responsibility.
In his address on Thursday, Yunus vowed to bring those involved in Hadi's brutal murder to justice quickly, saying, “No leniency will be shown” to the killers.
“I sincerely call upon all citizens – keep your patience and restraint,” he said.
“No one can stop the democratic progress of this country through threat, terrorist activities or bloodshed,” he said, adding that the responsibility of realising Hadi's dream lies on the shoulders of the entire.
