Malaysian on death row in Singapore granted stay of execution
The Malaysian citizen who is scheduled to be executed in Singapore tomorrow has been granted a stay of execution pending his hearing on May 20, according to lawyer N Surendran.
The decision was made by the Singapore High Court following an online hearing this morning where Datchinamurty Kataiah (above) represented himself from prison.
“Datchinamurthy will not be...
The Malaysian citizen who is scheduled to be executed in Singapore tomorrow has been granted a stay of execution pending his hearing on May 20, according to lawyer N Surendran.
The decision was made by the Singapore High Court following an online hearing this morning where Datchinamurty Kataiah (above) represented himself from prison.
“Datchinamurthy will not be executed tomorrow. He had succeeded in his application to prohibit the execution in view of the fact that he has a pending case before the Singapore High Court which is fixed for a hearing on May 20,” Surendran said in a phone call to Malaysiakini.
Datchinamurthy was scheduled to be executed tomorrow, according to a letter dated April 22 from the Singapore Prison Service.
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In a statement yesterday, Lawyers for Liberty claimed that Datchinamurthy had no choice but to argue his own case because lawyers in Singapore were afraid to represent death row inmates out of fear of reprisals from Singapore’s Attorney-General Lucien Wong and its courts.
Lawyers for Liberty later said in a tweet that following the Singapore High Court's ruling today that the Attorney-General’s Chambers had rushed an appeal to the appellate court in an attempt to carry on with tomorrow's execution.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the Attorney-General Chamber’s appeal, which was reportedly filed minutes after Datchinamurthy was granted his stay of execution.
The Court of Appeal ruling was held at 2.30pm today, said Lawyers for Liberty.
The 36-year-old has been on death row in Singapore’s Changi prison for trafficking 44.96g of diamorphine in 2015. Heroin is a crude preparation of diamorphine.
He was arrested on Nov 18, 2011, along with a Singaporean woman, who, unlike Datchinamurthy, received a life sentence.
If the execution proceeded as planned, it would have come a mere two days after the execution of fellow Malaysian Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam for trafficking 44g of heroin into Singapore.
