Singapore carries out death sentence on Malaysian Datchinamurthy convicted of heroin trafficking

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 — Singapore has executed Malaysian national Datchinamurthy Kataiah over his conviction for trafficking heroin into the country.

Singapore’s central narcotics bureau confirmed the execution in a statement, maintaining that Datchinamurthy was “accorded full due process under the law and was represented by legal counsel during trial and appeal”.

It added that his clemency petitions to the Singapore president were unsuccessful.

“Capital punishment is imposed only for the most serious crimes, such as the trafficking of significant quantities of drugs which cause very serious harm, not just to individual drug abusers, but also to their families and the wider society,” said the bureau.

Datchinamurthy’s execution was initially scheduled for this morning but was halted, with the family notified after receiving a call from Changi prison after midnight. No reason was disclosed.

Singaporean activist Kokila Annamalai said the prison called the family around 1.40pm today to inform them that Datchinamurthy’s plea for clemency had been rejected by the Singaporean president and that his execution would go ahead.

In a Facebook post, she said the family was told to collect the body at 3pm but the prison refused to state what time the execution would take place.

“The family repeatedly pleaded for a last visit or phone call, and when that was refused, asked if they could pass Datchinamurthy a message through the prison officer on the line. The prison said ‘no’ to that, too.

“There are no words to describe how degrading, cruel and outrageous this treatment is, with the family’s dignity and sanity toyed with so sadistically,” said Kokila.

Datchinamurthy was arrested in 2011 and sentenced to death in 2015. He was scheduled to be executed in 2022 but obtained a stay of execution pending a legal suit against the Singapore government over his death sentence.

He was one of four Malaysians on death row in Singapore whose cases the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia had urged the government to intervene in.

The other three are P Pannir Selvam, S Saminathan and R Lingkesvaran.

Authorities said the amount of heroin seized was enough to sustain the addiction of about 540 drug users for a week.

Under Singapore’s Misuse of Drugs Act, trafficking more than 15 grammes of diamorphine carries the mandatory death penalty.

Datchinamurthy was convicted and sentenced to death by the High Court on April 15, 2015.

His appeal against the conviction and sentence was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on Feb 5, 2016.

Source: freemalaysiatoday.com, Staff, September 25, 2025

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