KUALA LUMPUR – Singapore’s Court of Appeal today dismissed an appeal by the city-state’s attorney-general to overturn the decision by a lower court to grant a stay of Malaysian Datchinamurthy Kataiah’s death sentence, according to legal rights group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL).
Datchinamurthy was scheduled to be executed by hanging at dawn tomorrow but was granted a reprieve earlier this morning when the Singapore High Court issued a stay order while he waits for the hearing of his prison correspondence misconduct legal challenge on May 20.
However, Singapore’s attorney-general had rushed an appeal at the appellate court in a bid to overturn the ruling and get the execution back on track, LFL said on twitter.
This morn Datchinamurthy was granted a stay of execution by d highcourt. Spore AG rushed an appeal to d CA, which was heard w astonishing speed 2:30pm today! However CoA dismissed d AG’s appeal- stay order maintained! #savedatch
— Lawyers for Liberty (@lawyers4liberty) April 28, 2022
The Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Datchinamurthy, who was unrepresented.
Singaporean rights activist Kokila Annamalai said the Attorney-General’s Chambers filed its appeal just minutes after Datchinamurthy won his stay of execution at the high court.
“He was not given a chance to secure a lawyer for this appeal. He won (at the high court) and was almost immediately brought back via teleconference for the 2.30pm hearing,” Kokila said in a post on Facebook.
“I am in utter disbelief and disgust. Why this frantic, obsessive rush to execute a man who has just convinced a court to stay his execution? So much so that the appeal has to be filed and heard just two hours after by a three-judge panel?”
LFL advisor N. Surendran said the Singapore AG’s decision to file an appeal against Datchinamurthy was shocking, after the high court provided a valid reason to grant the stay.
“And to put Datchinamurthy and his family through trauma by rushing an appeal is despicable behaviour,” he told The Vibes.
“On top of it, the AG knows full well Datchinamurthy still doesn’t have a lawyer to represent him. I’m just glad they failed in the appeal.”
Datchinamurthy has been on death row in Singapore’s Changi Prison since his 2015 conviction for drug trafficking.
Another Malaysian, Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, was executed yesterday morning for a similar offence. – The Vibes, April 28, 2022
