Death Penalty News

It's time to abolish the death penalty. I hope all of you had a wonderful Raya break. While celebrating the festive season and enjoying the company of loved ones, relatives and friends, hopefully we can spare a thought for the grieving family of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam , who was executed in Singapore recently for having trafficked 43g of heroin into the island republic as a drug mule about a decade ago. Despite desperate attempts by lawyers, activists, British billionaire Richard Branson, broadcaster Stephen Fry and, finally, his mother to save him from the noose, the authorities in the island republic were bent on not commuting the capital punishment to, say, life imprisonment. The 11th-hour legal challenge mounted by his 60-year-old mother, Panchalai Supermaniam, was reportedly dismissed by the republic’s Court of Appeal as “frivolous”. The fact that Nagaenthran was intellectually disabled was apparently not a factor to be considered for a lenient sentence. Nor did compassion pl...

“Singapore is Disneyland with the Death Penalty” – William Gibson  The penal policy pursued by the UK in all its colonies included the death penalty. Many of these colonies, while professing to be “anti-colonial” or even “post-colonial” have retained the death penalty after independence from the UK. To quote the Death Penalty Project : Within the Commonwealth, consisting principally of former territories of the British Empire, a disproportionate number of countries continue to impose the death penalty. Only 37% of Commonwealth countries have abolished the death penalty in law, compared to 57% on a global scale. Many Commonwealth countries have also been vocal on the international stage in defending retention of the death penalty. In December 2016, half of the 40 countries that voted against a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a moratorium on executions were members of the Commonwealth. Singapore is one such former British colony retaining the death penalty. Last week it ex...

SINGAPORE -Singapore executed a Malaysian man convicted of drug trafficking on Wednesday despite appeals for clemency on the grounds that he had an intellectual disability, his family said, in a case that has drawn international attention. Nagaenthran Dharmalingam , 34, had been on death row for more than a decade for trafficking 44 grams (1.5 oz) of heroin into Singapore, which has some of the world’s toughest narcotics laws. His lawyers had filed multiple appeals against his execution saying he was intellectually disabled. His brother Navin Kumar, 22, said by telephone the execution had been carried out and said the body would be sent back to Malaysia where a funeral would be held in the town of Ipoh. A Singapore court on Tuesday turned down a legal challenge put forward by Nagaenthran’s mother, clearing the way for the execution by hanging. 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...

The Singapore Court of Appeal has dismissed a last-minute legal challenge filed by the mother of a mentally disabled Malaysian man in an attempt to halt his execution for drug trafficking The Singapore Court of Appeal on Tuesday dismissed a last-minute legal challenge filed by the mother of a mentally disabled Malaysian man in an attempt to halt his execution for drug trafficking. The dismissal of the motion clears the way for the execution of Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam , 34, to proceed Wednesday. The motion, filed Monday by his mother , Panchalai Supermaniam, argued that Nagaenthran may not have received a fair trial because Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, who presided over his previous failed appeals, was attorney general at the time he was convicted in 2010, creating a potential conflict of interest. Nagaenthran’s lawyers and supporters say he has an IQ of 69, and that the execution of a mentally disabled person is prohibited under international human rights law. The court ruled Tue...

For Richard Branson, the notion of an advanced country like Singapore still hanging prisoners is an outrageous proposition that may not escape investors. But the high-profile case of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam , a mentally impaired death-row inmate with an IQ of 69 in the country’s Changi Prison, really struck a chord with the British billionaire entrepreneur and long-time anti-death-penalty advocate. Richard Branson, Stephen Fry and Tim Shriver plead for Singapore not to execute intellectually impaired Malaysian man Nagaenthran Dharmalingam. Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, was arrested 13 years ago for smuggling 42.72 grams of heroin into Singapore from Malaysia. He was later handed a mandatory death sentence and has been on death row for more than a decade. Now, after an unsuccessful, last-ditch appeal in Singapore’s highest court, Nagaenthran is scheduled to face the gallows at dawn next Wednesday. “It’s devastating news,” the Virgin Group founder in an interview with The Sydney Mornin...

LONDON, April 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Singaporean officials have scheduled the execution of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam , an intellectually disabled Malaysian man sentenced to death in 2011 for carrying less than three tablespoons of diamorphine, for next Wednesday, 27 April.  In a bid for mercy, Richard Branson, Stephen Fry and disability rights activist and Chair of the Special Olympics Timothy Shriver, have shared a personal plea to Singapore's authorities to spare Nagaenthran's life. Branson, Fry and Shriver join more than 100,000 people who have signed a petition calling on President Halimah Yacob to pardon Nagaenthran in light of his intellectual disability and amid growing opposition to the death penalty in Singapore. Those who have called for clemency include Malaysian King Abdullah Shah, United Nations Special Rapporteurs and the EU's Delegation to Singapore. Nagaenthran has an IQ of 69, below the internationally recognised threshold for intellectual disability, an...