Intellectually Disabled Man Spared Imminent Execution After Catching COVID

In a twist few saw coming, Singapore’s highest court has delayed the execution of an intellectually disabled man convicted of drug trafficking after he was found to have tested positive for COVID-19.

Addressing a crowded courtroom today, three judges adjourned the hearing and announced their decision to delay the execution until proceedings could be concluded. They ruled that the court felt it would be “inappropriate” to proceed with the execution—originally scheduled for Nov. 10—“given the circumstances.” 

“If the applicant has been afflicted by COVID-19... it's our view that the execution cannot take place anyway,” said Justice Andrew Pang.

Malaysian Nagaenthran Dharmalingam has been on death row in Singapore for more than a decade, and is set to be the first person executed in the city-state since the pandemic began. He was arrested and detained in 2009 at the age of 21 by Singaporean immigration officers at a border checkpoint when he was found with 42.72 grams of heroin strapped to his thigh. 

Nagaenthran was sentenced to death by hanging under Singapore’s strict drug laws. Several failed appeals have followed, including a plea for clemency, despite assessments by psychiatrists concluding that he has an IQ of 69 and an “intellectual disability.”

Earlier reports stated that he had been in isolation while on death row, with the announcement that he had contracted COVID-19 surprising many. His execution was also stayed on Monday, awaiting an appeal, after a judge stated "there is no credible basis" for claims he held a mental age of someone below 18. 

Since testing positive, members of Nagaenthran’s family—currently in Singapore thanks to crowdfunding efforts—have been told that they won’t be able to visit him and will only be allowed phone calls, according to a public statement by his sister, Sarmila K Dharmalinga.

”I am concerned about my brother Nagen. He has now tested positive for Covid and he will be alone. We are not sure how long he will be quarantined for in prison,” she said.

Anti-death penalty activist Kirsten Han questioned the Singaporean government’s reasoning.

“The absurdity of capital punishment is the state insisting someone of borderline intellectual functioning and cognitive impairment can be executed, [and] then the moment he tests Covid+ it’s suddenly about ‘logic, common sense and humanity’,” she wrote on Twitter.

Singapore has some of the harshest drug laws in the world. The government maintains that capital punishment is an effective deterrent against drug trafficking, while also claiming it receives strong support among the Singaporean public. 

But the jarring details of Nagaenthran’s case have reignited fierce debate over the government’s continued use and defence of the death penalty. 

On social media, many condemned the state’s decision to execute Nagaenthran. “Will killing this man make us feel safer at night? I don’t think so,” one wrote. Others called out the “cold and cruel” way news of the execution was delivered to Nagaenthran’s family in Ipoh, Malaysia. Earlier this month, Nagaenthran’s mother received a matter-of-fact letter outlining her son’s imminent execution, as well as stating that she’d have to navigate COVID-19 restrictions in order to see him one final time. 

The case has attracted global attention from rights groups, overseas foreign delegations and even British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, who took to Twitter this week to voice his support for Nagaenthran, calling on Singapore’s president to spare his life. 

“His ordeal exposes the fatal flaws of the death penalty on so many levels,” Branson wrote in a strongly-worded statement on Nov. 8. 

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