SINGAPORE executed Nagaenthran Dharmalingam this morning, his brother Navin Kumar confirmed.

Navin said the 34-year-old’s remains will be taken back to Ipoh later today.

Nagaenthran, who has been on death row for more than a decade, has an IQ of 69, a lower-than-average score that qualifies for intellectual disability.

He was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to death in 2011 under the Misuse of Drugs Act for illegally importing 42.7g of diamorphine.

Nagaenthran 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.

He was originally scheduled to be hanged in November last year but the decision sparked criticism due to his IQ level and his lawyer mounted an 11th-hour challenge at the Court of Appeal. 

Yesterday, the Singapore Court of Appeal dismissed a legal challenge filed by Nagaenthran’s mother in a last-ditch attempt to set aside her son’s conviction and death sentence. 

Panchalai Supermaniam filed the legal challenge for her son with the help of friends and activists and was not represented by any lawyer.

The hearing proceeded before justices Andrew Phang, Judith Prakash and Belinda Ang.

The basis of the legal challenge was that judge Sundaresh Menon, who presided over and dismissed Nagaenthran’s appeals, was earlier the attorney-general who had prosecuted the 34-year-old and secured his conviction.

Among others, the decision, which was read by Justice Phang, said Nagaenthran should raise an objection to Menon sitting on the Coram “at the appropriate juncture and not at the 11th hour in a separate application in the attempt to delay his execution.”  

After his mother’s application was dismissed, the court granted Nagaenthran’s request to hold hands with his seven family members present in the courtroom through a slit in the glass panel. – April 27, 2022.