Singapore executes intellectually disabled prisoner despite UN criticism

Singapore executed this Wednesday a Malaysian prisoner with intellectual disabilities sentenced to death for drug trafficking, despite criticism from the international community and requests for the suspension of the sentence.

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Nagaenthran -Nagen- Dharmalingam, 34, was hanged this morning in Changi prison, activist Kirsten Han, coordinator of the NGO Transformative Justice Collective, confirmed to Efe from outside the prison, where she waited for the brother of the prisoner, Navin, identify the body

A Singapore court yesterday rejected the final appeal filed by the mother of the Malaysian, who suffered from an intellectual disability and whose case has sparked criticism from the European Union and the UN, which this week called for the execution to be stopped, as well as unusual protests on the semi-authoritarian island.

At least 300 people gathered on Monday in Singapore’s Hong Lim Park – the only place where the government allows protests – to call for a stay in the execution of Nagen and another Malaysian prisoner, Datchinamurthy Kataiah, also sentenced to death. for drug trafficking and who will initially be hanged – the method of execution used on the island – on Friday.

Nagen was arrested in April 2009 for smuggling 42.72 grams of heroin into Singapore, which has one of the most draconian drug laws on the planet and allows the death penalty to be imposed for 15 grams of smuggled heroin. .

Lawyers for the Malaysian, who has spent more than a decade on death row, had filed numerous appeals to stay his execution alleging Nagen’s intellectual disability, who had an IQ of 69 (a level that qualifies as an impairment), according to their lawyers and activists.

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The requests were dismissed by the judges, who considered that the Malaysian was aware of what he was doing when he was arrested.

The United Nations Office for Human Rights urged the Singapore government on Monday to stop the executions of Nagen and Datchinamurthy, the latter sentenced to death in 2011 for importing about 45 grams of heroin on the island.

Activists like Han warn that the current near saturation on death row is leading to an acceleration in executions after two years of hiatus; In less than a month, two prisoners have been executed, the first on March 30, a Singaporean also convicted of drug trafficking, and the Malaysian this Wednesday.

Source: Elcomercio

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