KUALA LUMPUR – With Singapore’s Home Affairs Ministry (MHA) dismissing an online petition to pardon Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, who is on death row, it seems like the island republic is set on its decision.
On Thursday, in response to the online petition that has now garnered more than 50,000 signatures, MHA said Nagaenthran had fabricated his defence that he had committed the act under coercion.
A report by Singapore news portal TODAYonline said that was the finding by the high court in sentencing the intellectually disabled Malaysian man to death in 2010 for importing drugs into the neighbouring country.
This was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal, which flatly rejected his account of being coerced under duress.
On Wednesday, MHA said both courts held that his mental responsibility for his offence was not substantially impaired.
“Nagaenthran was found to have clearly understood the nature of his acts, and he did not lose his sense of judgment of the rightness or wrongness of what he was doing,” MHA said.
Although there have been pleas and requests by international non-governmental organisations (NGO) and human rights groups to save the 33-year-old from the gallows, the Singapore government has remained steadfast.
This means Nagaenthran will be executed on Wednesday, unless the Singapore government grants him clemency at the eleventh hour.
While Nagaenthran’s mother Panchalai Supermaniam spends her Deepavali leave to reunite with her son for what possibly may be the last time, this issue will continue to be in the headlines as the “uncompromising” laws in Singapore are often seen to be a curse on the poor and unfortunate.
Mandatory death penalty: to stay or to go?
Meanwhile, NGOs campaigning the cause cannot seem to agree on the best course of action to take and whether mandatory death sentencing should stay or be abolished completely.
Speaking to The Vibes, Malaysians Against Death Penalty & Torture coordinator Charles Hector said all mandatory sentences, including the death penalty, must be abolished.
“It is the judiciary’s duty and responsibility to sentence justly based on all relevant facts and the circumstances of each case.
“Parliament should never encroach over, or remove judicial authority and responsibilities. Remember that democracy is divided into three branches – the executive, legislative, and judiciary.
“Malaysia is one of very few countries that maintain the mandatory death penalty. In other countries, death may be just an option in terms of penalty.”
He is of the view that there must be a complete review and overhaul of the death penalty, particularly on drugs.
“The point we want to make is that a person found in possession of 50g of drugs should receive a different punishment compared to those found in possession of 1kg, 10kg, or 10 tonnes.
Punishment for mere possession must differ with punishment for smuggling or transporting, production, active selling, recruitment of mules, and organised distribution.
“To lump it all as drug trafficking, with the death penalty, is just so wrong and unjust.”
He said judges should be free to consider all mitigating and aggravating factors when it comes to sentencing.
Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network Executive Coordinator (Adpan) Dobby Chew had a different sentiment.
Although Chew echoed Hector’s comments on doing away with mandatory death sentences, he said it would put a lot more burden on the judiciary should a discretionary system be implemented.
“The idea of having a judge (a person or a panel of them) in control of the sentence and under pressure to decide on life or death, I think, creates a whole new set of concerns.
“If we leave it to be too broad, it may end up becoming too arbitrary. If you tie it down too much, what is the point of discretion?
“If we leave it for lawyers and judges to argue and work out a decision, there is another set of problems behind all that.”
Therefore, Chew said, he is of the opinion that placing another person in control of another’s life and giving them the liberty to decide whether the other person would live or die would not work without major concerns.
Singapore’s ‘misleading assertions’
In a statement on Thursday, Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) expressed dismay by “misleading assertions” in MHA’s statement.
“MHA deliberately sidesteps the fact that the court also found that Nagaenthran suffers from borderline intellectual functioning and ADHD, has an FSIQ score of 69, and that his executive functioning skills are impaired.
“Executing a person with any kind of mental or intellectual disability is in breach of customary international law. It is also inhumane and sickens everyone who hears about it.
“This is the real objection and concern of right-minded people, both Malaysian and Singaporean, to the planned execution of Nagaenthran. This is why Singaporeans have been raising funds for the family and Malaysians have been carrying out public protests in recent days,” said LFL adviser N. Surendran.
Surendran said MHA’s “robotic response” that the court and clemency process have been exhausted does not answer these concerns.
“Throughout their statement, nowhere does MHA respond to or address the above mental and intellectual disabilities of Nagaenthran.
Instead, they try to paint this man with a child’s intellect as a calculating and deliberate criminal, in a desperate bid to defuse public outrage on both sides of the causeway, as well as rising international disgust.”
Nagaenthran was arrested in Singapore on April 22, 2010 for trafficking 42.72g of diamorphine and was handed the death penalty by the high court on November 22, 2010.
He has exhausted his appeal options after his presidential clemency application was rejected on June 1, 2020.
In the meantime, Wisma Putra said it will continue to monitor developments on the death penalty case.
On Wednesday, Malaysian Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah said the ministry will also provide consular aid to him and his family.
He added that he wrote to his Singaporean counterpart on the matter, and has received a letter from Adpan via Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah.
Similarly, in 2017, Malaysian drug trafficker Abd Helmi Ab Halim was given the mandatory death penalty after he was caught trafficking 16.56g of diamorphine, or pure heroin.
According to a report by Channel News Asia, the amount of diamorphine Helmi trafficked was equivalent to about 1,380 straws of heroin, enough to feed the addiction of close to 200 abusers for a week, said the two Singapore ministries.
Helmi was executed at Changi Prison Complex on November 21, 2019, after an unsuccessful petition to the Singaporean president for clemency.
He was accorded full due process under the law, and was represented by legal counsel throughout the process, the ministries said. – The Vibes, November 7, 2021
