Rights groups seek clemency for Nagaenthran as wait continues for Singapore verdict

Rights groups on Wednesday mounted a fresh eleventh-hour clemency appeal for Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam who is facing execution in Singapore for drug offences, saying he suffers from mental and psychological disabilities.

Nagaenthran, now 34, was arrested in 2009 for trafficking a small amount of heroin into Singapore, which has some of the world’s toughest drug laws, and handed a then mandatory death sentence the following year.

He was scheduled to be hanged in November but the verdict sparked criticism due to concerns he has intellectual disabilities, with the European Union and British billionaire Richard Branson among those condemning the decision.

The appeal was made in separate letters sent by Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (Adpan) to Singapore President Halimah Yacob through the city-state’s embassy in Malaysia.

Nagaenthran’s lawyer Violet Netto had urged Singapore’s Court of Appeal last week to show “mercy” by allowing the prisoner to undergo an independent assessment by psychiatrists. The court has yet to issue a ruling on the appeal.

Amnesty’s letter said Nagaenthran has been found “to have borderline intellectual functioning and cognitive deficits”.

Adpan said he is also suffering from a “psychological disability” and asked Singapore’s president to “grant clemency or intervene… to commute his death sentence”.

A handful of rights activists held up posters bearing Nagaenthran’s photo outside the embassy as the letters were handed to a representative.

Supporters say Nagaenthran has an IQ of 69 – a level recognised as a disability – and was coerced into committing the crime.

Singapore previously rejected appeals by Malaysian leaders for clemency, saying that Nagaenthran “has been accorded full due process under the law”.

Authorities have said legal rulings had also found that he “knew what he was doing” at the time of the offence.

If the hanging is carried out, it would be the first in a series in the coming months, with activists warning that authorities are gearing up to execute three other drug traffickers.

Singapore is among more than 30 countries worldwide where drug-related offences are still punishable by death, according to Amnesty.

It maintains the death penalty for several offences, including drug trafficking and murder, and insists it has helped to keep Singapore one of the safest places in Asia.