Nagaenthran case set to death in Singapore in protest | Death Penalty Issues

Singapore – Nagaenthran Dharmalingam remains in the Changi prison camp in Singapore, sitting on a death row like it has 11 years ago.

This week was the last one, though eleven o’clock being killed and the availability of the COVID-19 test, which kept him alive – for now.

His case has sparked riots in a small town in Southeast Asia, fueling controversy over the death penalty in a country notorious for its insurgency.

In 2009, 21-year-old Nagaenthran was arrested while trying to enter Singapore after tightening his 43-gram diamorphine (heroin) thigh. A year later, he was sentenced to death.

Nagaenthran said he was forced to carry drugs, although he later claimed he had become like a donkey because he needed the money.

His legal team has stated that his lower 69 IQ is indicative of a mental disability, which affects his ability to make informed decisions.

The case has sparked international opposition from human rights groups to European Union envoys and British businessman Richard Branson.

There was even a strange intervention by the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Ismail Sabri Yaakob wrote a letter to his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong, demanding his release, according to the Malaysian news agency Bernama.

The Nagaenthran crisis has also led to widespread opposition in the same city. A petition filed by a Singaporean man to stop the execution has received more than 80,000 signatures.

Singapore has already seen the aid of the death penalty. A 2019 study by the Institute of Policy Studies in 2,000 people found that 70 percent agreed that killing is a way to prevent a higher crime than life imprisonment.

But the case has also sparked controversy over the death penalty in Singapore.

“There are a number of things in Nagen’s case that attract public attention and cause him to feel sorry for himself,” said Kirsten Han, a human rights activist.

“The fact that he has only 69 IQs and other intellectual challenges, yet he was sentenced to death and prepared for his assassination, is alarming.”

‘Criminal mind’

Much of Nagaenthran’s story has been shared and reviewed online. In Singapore, outbursts of the death penalty are often limited to human rights groups, but this has become commonplace.

Top TV accounts shared photos of a letter sent to the Nagaenthran family in Malaysia by the Singapore Prison Service.

It briefly outlined the timing of their child’s death, without elaborating on the details of their plans to enter Singapore during the epidemic as well as their own human settlements.

“I have met people who were shocked at how cold the message of death was. But it is a well-established way that such information is passed on to families.

“The only difference with the Nagen family is that the letter was longer because they had to include COVID regulations,” Han said.

Singapore has a drug-resistant attitude, and anyone caught carrying more than 15 grams of diamorphine could be sentenced to death.

However, there was a slight relaxation of the 2012 law. The law on drug use was changed, giving judges an opportunity to serve life sentences instead of life imprisonment. any.

One of these techniques is to allow the offender to avoid execution if he or she is mentally disabled. This is where the Nagaenthran petition was launched in 2015 and failed.

The Nagaenthran family learned of the death plan in a letter from the Singapore Prison Service, outlining all the COVID-19 guidelines they would need to follow to see him. [Sarmila Dharmalingam via AP Photo]

Stephanie McLennan, Senior Asia Initiatives Manager at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that Nagaenthran had not received “accommodation for the disabled” in its investigation and prosecution, in violation of international law.

But intellectual disability protection has been challenged by Singapore courts.

In a statement, the Ministry of Interior of Singapore (MHA) stated: “He knew that it was illegal to take the drugs, and he hid the drugs out of sight.

“Although he knew that his actions were illegal, he did so to pay off part of the debt. The Court of Appeals for the Court of Appeals ruled that this was a criminal offense. ”

Limited information on criminal gangs

If Nagaenthran is hanged, he will be the first person to be killed in Singapore since 2019.

In the last eight years, 35 people have been killed by the government, according to Singapore government data. Twenty-eight people were found guilty of drug trafficking.

Singapore claims that its strong justice system makes it one of the safest places in the world.

Officials say drug traffickers are well aware of the law and given the dangers of smuggling, it is reduced.

Data from the MHA shows a 66 percent reduction in opium weight sales in the four years since the death penalty was imposed in 1990, for the sale of more than 1,200 grams of opium.

But the threat of death did not stop the drug trade.

Last month, a Singaporean man failed to appeal his death sentence after being caught smuggling 2.2 pounds of marijuana into his home country in 2018. And last year, a man was sentenced to death for selling drugs at Zoom in 2011.

Singapore officials may sell the final sentence as a deterrent, but critics of the death penalty view things differently.

Singapore has said the death penalty is necessary and a deterrent to drug traffickers, but critics say it only punishes small offenders instead of gangsters behind the group, causing grief to their families. [File:  Roslan Rahman/AFP]

They argue that the death penalty punishes minor players in big games.

“Drug trafficking is rampant in the region and Singapore has not changed. Most of the victims who have been exposed for years have been trafficking or trafficking a few people, “Dobby Chew, Executive Co-ordinator of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network told Al Jazeera.

“The groups that support the drug trade are still alive and well even though they have killed several times over the years.”

Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.

“First they tried to kill a paralyzed man. Now he is showing mercy to her and treating her with COVID-19, “Chew said.

But all we know is that once he is healed, he will continue to kill him. I think that the stupidity of reform will force people to reconsider what they know about the death penalty. ”