THE Yang Di-Pertuan Agong had also asked Singapore to review the sentence imposed on Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, a Malaysian with mental disabilities on death row in that country, said Kamarudin Jaffar.
 
“I can report that apart from the foreign minister (at first) and then the prime minister, the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong has also sent a letter to the Singapore President to lower the sentence or for release,” the deputy foreign minister told Parliament during the ministry’s winding-up speech today. 
 
The Bandar Tun Razak lawmaker was responding to a question by Kasthuri Patto (Batu Kawan-Pakatan Harapan) on Nagaenthran’s case.
 
Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal in Singapore extended the stay of execution on the grounds that of Nagaenthran has Covid-19.
  
The republic’s High Court granted an 11th-hour stay of execution pending the hearing at the Court of Appeal this afternoon.
 
“Nagaenthran’s stay of execution granted yesterday by High Ct (court) has been extended by the Ct (court) of Appeal this afternoon! On grounds that he has Covid-19,” the advisor for Lawyers for Liberty said in a tweet.
 
The Malaysian on death row for drug trafficking was slated to be executed on November 10.
 
In 2019, Singapore’s Court of Appeal dismissed Nagaenthran’s appeal against his death sentence for carrying 42.72g of heroin into the republic.

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

Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah had said the federal government has 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

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

Nagaenthran has been diagnosed with intellectual disability and has an IQ of 69, which is lower than average. – November 23, 2021.