Singapore executes Malaysian K Datchinamurthy

Malaysian K Datchinamurthy was executed this afternoon, said Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

In a statement announcing the 39-year-old’s execution today, the CNB said he had been accorded full due process under the law.

“Capital punishment is imposed only for the most serious crimes, such as the trafficking of significant quantities of drugs which cause very serious harm, not just to individual drug abusers, but also to their families and the wider society,” it said.

CNB said Datchinamurthy was convicted of smuggling 44.96g of diamorphine - an amount sufficient “to feed the addiction of about 540 abusers for a week”.

Earlier today, Datchinamurthy’s family’s lawyer, N Surendran, urged the Singapore government to halt the execution as the family has rushed an application to the Court of Appeal for a stay of execution.

Surendran said the family was informed that Datchinamurthy’s execution would be carried out today, and to collect his body at 3pm.

The Lawyers for Liberty adviser condemned the Singapore government’s cruelty, as the family was informed just after midnight today that the man’s execution had been halted, although no reason was given for the decision.

“To pretend to give a reprieve to Datchinamurthy, raise his and his family’s hopes, and then to plunge them into horror and despair again, is unforgivable and uncivilised.

“It amounts to carrying out the execution in an arbitrary, cruel, and unusual manner, which is unlawful and unconstitutional.

“The cruelty inflicted appears deliberate and unfeeling, and is a new low for Singapore. In short, it is state barbarism,” Surendran said in a statement.

A decade on death row

Datchinamurthy has been on death row for a decade for smuggling 44.96g of diamorphine, or heroin, into the republic.

He was first sentenced to death in 2015 following his arrest in 2011, and was scheduled to be executed in 2022.

However, he obtained a stay of execution from the Singapore High Court pending his legal suit against the Singapore government over his death sentence.

He is also one of four Malaysians on death row in Singapore whom Suhakam highlighted earlier this month as part of its appeal for Putrajaya to intervene in their executions.

The other three are P Pannir Selvam, S Saminathan, and R Lingkesvaran.

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