MALAYSIA does not have the moral grounds to plead for clemency on behalf of Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam as drug dealers’ face the same punishments here, Padang Rengas MP Nazri Aziz said.

According to Nazri, as of August 2020, there were 446 foreigners and 472 Malaysians on death row.

“The issue here is that we do not have the moral grounds to appeal to any country if any Malaysian is found involved in drug trafficking and to ask for clemency, because we also have the death penalty,” he said when debating the supply bill 2022 in the Dewan Rakyat today.

“We need to sort this out. The death penalty is allowed even though we know taking a life is wrong. It is not right to take a life. It is precious, it is gifted by God.”

He said it was ironic that people were not allowed to take another person’s life and yet the government was allowed to do so.

Nagaenthran, an intellectually disabled man, was supposed to be executed today for the offence he committed in 2009.

Yesterday, the Singapore Court of Appeal granted a stay of judicial execution with immediate effect until all pending proceedings were concluded, in light of Nagaenthran testing positive for Covid-19.

The Singapore Prison Service (SPS) confirmed today that a Malaysian who is scheduled to be hanged today for drug trafficking tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday, and will receive medical attention.

In 2019, the Singapore Court of Appeal dismissed Nagaenthran’s challenge to his death sentence for carrying 42.72g of heroin into the republic.

He was caught with a bundle of the narcotic strapped to his thigh when entering the city-state from Malaysia via the Woodlands Checkpoint in April 2009.

Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said the federal government had exhausted the clemency process for Nagaenthran last year.

However, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob wrote to his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, seeking leniency for the Malaysian last Wednesday.

Anti-death sentence campaigners and rights groups in both countries have urged the execution be stopped, citing that executing a person with a mental disability violates international law.

Nagaenthran has been diagnosed with intellectual disability and has an IQ of 69. – November 10, 2021.