With S’pore court date soon, Nagaenthran’s lawyers plead for clemency

Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam’ legal team has once again called upon Singapore to grant the intellectually challenged Malaysian inmate on death row clemency.

This comes after the Yang di-Pertuan Agong appealed to Singapore President Halimah Yacob, asking for Nagaenthran to be freed or for his death sentence to be commuted.

Lawyer N Surendran said family members of his client Nagaenthran were thankful for the king’s effort.

“The YDPA’s intervention was important and unprecedented. Nagaenthran’s family were very grateful that the YDPA had made this appeal on behalf of him.

“It also expresses the strength of feeling in this country that Nagaenthran, who suffers from mental disability, can be saved.

“We hope Singapore takes all this into account and exercises clemency in his favour,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Nagaenthran was sentenced to death in 2011 for trafficking 42.72g of diamorphine into Singapore. Heroin is made from diamorphine.

His lawyers say he has a mild intellectual disability due to his lower-than-average IQ of 69.

Aside from the Agong, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaacob had also appealed to his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong to allow Nagaenthran to file a fresh clemency petition.

Human rights, legal groups and Malaysian lawmakers have made a similar call.

Back in June 2020, Halimah had rejected the 33-year-old’s petition for his death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.

Appeal hearing on Nov 30

Meanwhile, Surendran said his client’s appeal against the Singapore High Court’s decision to dismiss a constitutional challenge against his execution is set to be heard on Tuesday (Nov 30).

“This (Nov 30) is the very last day of court business before the court vacation starts.

“We hope Singapore will give full consideration to the YDPA’s appeal and not hurry towards execution,” he said.

Opposition lawmaker Hassan Abdul Karim echoed Surendran’s call.

“I sincerely appeal to the Singapore government to set aside the death sentence against Nagaenthran, a Malaysian citizen, on a valid reason that he, as an accused, has defects (in) his mental faculties and abilities to understand as a normal person,” pleaded the PKR Pasir Gudang MP in a statement.

Nagaenthran was scheduled to hang on Nov 10 but was granted a stay of execution on Nov 8 after his Singaporean lawyer M Ravi filed an 11th-hour constitutional challenge.

Although the High Court dismissed the challenge, it allowed an appeal to the Court of Appeal.

The appeal was supposed to be heard earlier this month but was postponed when Nagaenthran tested positive for Covid-19 on Nov 9.

Nagaenthran’s case has garnered significant attention from international media, with particular attention on Singapore’s move to execute someone with an intellectual disability.

His family now want to take Singapore Attorney-General Lucien Wong to court over alleged negligence by the city-state’s criminal justice system.

Legal bid ends for Pannir

In another case, Malaysian P Pannir Selvam’s legal bid to challenge his Singapore death sentence has come to an end.

His lawyers Too Xing Ji and Lee Ji En confirmed the matter with Malaysiakini.

Pannir was sentenced to death in 2017 for trafficking 51.84g of diamorphine into the city-state.

Yesterday, the Singapore Court of Appeal dismissed his application for leave to challenge the public prosecutor’s refusal to issue him a Certificate of Substantive Assistance (CSA).

A CSA allows inmates the chance to commute their death sentences to life imprisonment for providing information about drug activities.

In a copy of the brief grounds that Malaysiakini sighted, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon noted that the Singapore Central Narcotics Bureau had not used information provided by Pannir.

The Singapore High Court dismissed the application in Feb 2020 on similar grounds.

Pannir’s lawyers told Malaysiakini that they have yet to receive further instructions from their client or his family.

Pannir was originally scheduled for execution on May 24, 2019 but was granted a stay one day prior when Too and Lee stepped in to represent him.

They successfully argued that he had the right to legal advice to challenge the clemency rejection.

Since obtaining the stay, Pannir’s family has initiated a campaign to save him from death row while he has started writing letters from prison to the public.

Pannir has also written two singles - ‘Arah Tuju’ and ‘Bukan Sekadar Hikayat’. Both are sung by Malaysian recording artists.

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