Nagaenthran Dharmalingam: Campaigners urge Singapore not to execute man with intellectual disabilities

However, his lawyers argue that Dharmalingam should not have been sentenced to death under Singaporean law because he was incapable of understanding his actions. A psychologist assessed his IQ to be 69, which is internationally recognized as an intellectual disability. At his trial, the defense also argued he had severe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), borderline intellectual functioning, and severe alcohol use disorder.

Dharmalingam has spent a decade on death row and during that time his condition has further deteriorated, his lawyers said.

“He has not a very good sense of what is happening around him,” said N. Surendran, a Malaysian lawyer who is representing Dharmalingam’s family, and adviser to Malaysian NGO Lawyers for Liberty. “He is disoriented. He’s got no real clue of what is going to happen to him.”

Surendran said executing Dharmalingam “would be tantamount to executing a child.”

Singapore has some of the strictest drug laws in the world. Trafficking a certain amount of drugs — for example, 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin — results in a mandatory death sentence under the Misuse of Drugs Act. It was only recently — and after Dharmalingam’s case began — the law was amended to allow for a convicted person to escape the death penalty in certain circumstances.

Dharmalingam was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death by Singapore’s High Court in 2010. His first appeal was dismissed a year later. Another appeal after Singapore amended its drug law was again rejected in 2018.

The court argued Dharmalingam transported drugs “in order to pay off his debts” and he knew it was unlawful so he “attempted to conceal the bundle by strapping it to his left thigh.” It also said Dharmalingam was “continuously altering his account of his education qualifications, ostensibly to reflect lower educational qualifications each time he was interviewed.”

“This was ‘the working of a criminal mind, weighing the risks and countervailing benefits associated with the criminal conduct in question.’ Nagaenthran considered the risks, balanced it against the reward he had hoped he would get, and decided to take the risk,” the ministry said in its statement, quoting the court’s decision.

Public pressure

More than 62,000 people have signed a petition urging Singapore’s President Halimah Yacob to issue a pardon. Last week, dozens of activists protested outside Parliament in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) and other rights groups have also called on the Singapore government to halt the execution.

“Singapore should commute Nagaenthran Dharmalingam’s sentence and amend its laws to ensure that no one is subjected to the death penalty, certainly not people with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities.”

Surendran, the lawyer, said the execution order was “sickening beyond belief.”

“We will work until the very last minute to save Nagaenthran but of course, as you can see time is running short,” he said.

Family ‘shocked’

The letter stipulated only five members of Dharmalingam’s family would be allowed to enter Singapore and would need to contend with a list of Covid regulations.

Several family members who managed to get to Singapore and meet with Dharmalingam in Changi prison are “shocked” at his condition, Surendran said.

“They see a completely different person, they’re not able to get through to him,” he said.

It was also a “tremendous challenge” for them to travel to Singapore from Malaysia due to the various financial costs and Covid restrictions imposed, he said. “It has been very difficult for the family.”

If the execution goes ahead, Singapore would be in breach “not only of customary international law, but also their own obligations under the UN convention on the rights of disabled person, which they have signed and ratified,” Surendran said.