Singapore: Stop execution of Malaysian with intellectual disabilities

JAKARTA – Southeast Asian parliamentarians have added their voices to the widespread calls urging the government of Singapore to immediately halt the scheduled execution of 33-year-old Malaysian national Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, on 10 November 2021, by hanging in the country’s Changi prison.

Mr Nagaenthran was convicted and sentenced to the mandatory death penalty in November 2010 for trafficking 42.72 grams of Diamorphine into Singapore in April 2009, a sentence upheld by the Singapore Court of Appeal in November 2011. During his trial, Mr Nagaenthran was assessed as having an IQ of 69, a level internationally recognized to qualify as an intellectual disability. He was also assessed to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and severe alcohol use disorder that together could affect his judgment, ability to assess risks, decision-making, and impulse control.  

“We cannot let a mentally impaired person be sent to the gallows. We urge Singapore to show mercy and compassion to commute his death sentence in accordance with international human rights law, especially as Singapore is a signatory to the UN Convention on Persons with Disabilities,” said Kasthuri Patto, a Member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) and Member of Parliament (MP) in Malaysia.  “We are not asking to pardon him but to show clemency to stop his execution, especially given that he may not have fully understood the consequences of his actions due to his intellectual disabilities. In the past, Malaysia too, on grounds of compassion commuted the death sentence to life of a Nigerian man who was later diagnosed as being schizophrenic. No crime committed should remain unpunished but never should any country execute a person with intellectual disabilities,” she said..

In a statement, UN experts said that Mr Nagaenthran’s 11 years on death row has “reportedly caused further deterioration of his mental health” and that the decision to carry out an execution during the COVID-19 pandemic and the additional impact of the sentence on his family “may amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

UN experts have also previously stated it is “a violation of death penalty safeguards to impose capital punishment on individuals suffering from psychosocial disabilities,” adding that “[i]nternational law considers the imposition and enforcement of the death penalty on persons with mental disabilities a violation of the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.” Furthermore, sentencing and executing a person suffering from intellectual disabilities would be in violation of Singapore’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by the State in 2013.

APHR reiterates its firm stand against the death penalty as it is inhumane, an affront to human dignity, and violates the very foundation of all other human rights, the right to life.  In addition to being illegal under international law, there is also no compelling evidence that capital punishment deters crimes. 

APHR calls on Singapore to respect international laws and standards and stop the execution of Mr Nagaenthran. APHR also urges the Singaporean government to establish a moratorium on all executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty, noting that judicial processes are not flawless and wrongful execution cannot be undone. Mandatory death sentences are inherently over-inclusive, and no one can give back a life once it is taken.