NAGAENTHRAN Dharmalingam’s appeal against his death sentence for drug trafficking in Singapore will not be heard tomorrow as reported earlier, his family said.

“I have been informed by my lawyer that there is no hearing tomorrow,” Nagaenthran’s sister Sharmila told The Malaysian Insight.

She said the family have contacted the prisons department for an official letter.

She also does not know if another date has been set for her brother’s appeal, and when it would be.

Last Thursday, Nagaenthran’s family said the appeal would be heard tomorrow.

His lawyer M. Ravi, in a Facebook live post today, also said the matter was postponed. They are waiting for Singapore’s Court of Appeal to set a new date.

Nagaenthran, 33, was to have been executed on November 10 but the news drew outcry as he is known to have an intellectual disability with an IQ of 69, which is lower than average. 

He was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to death in 2011 under the Misuse of Drugs Act for illegally importing 42.7g of diamorphine that was strapped to his thigh when entering the city-state from Malaysia via the Woodlands checkpoint in April 2009.

His first appeal in November 2011 failed.

After public pressure, Singapore’s court registry fixed November 9 for a new appeal, but this was slammed by human rights lawyers and anti-death penalty activists as an attempt to rush the process in order to hang Nagaenthran the following day as scheduled.

On November 9, Nagaenthran was reported as Covid-19-positive, and a stay of execution was extended.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and the Yang di-Pertuan Agong have both asked Singapore for a review of Nagaenthran’s death sentence in view of his intellectual disability. – November 29, 2021.