Bar Council again urges S'pore to consider clemency for Nagaenthran

The Bar Council has reiterated its call for Singapore to consider granting intellectually challenged death row inmate Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam clemency on compassionate grounds.

Back in June 2020, Singapore President Halimah Yacob had rejected the 33-year-old Malaysian's petition for his death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.

In a statement today, Bar Council president AG Kalidas called for “reconsideration” given reports of Nagaenthran’s mental health condition.

“Given the reported further deterioration of Nagaenthran’s mental condition, we believe that a reconsideration of clemency is warranted,” he said.

Nagaenthran was sentenced to death in 2011 for trafficking 42.72g of diamorphine into Singapore. Heroin is made from diamorphine.

He was scheduled to hang on Nov 10 but was granted a stay of execution on Nov 8 after his lawyers filed an 11th-hour constitutional challenge.

He later tested positive for Covid-19, resulting in a further extension of the stay until after he recovers and after the appellate court hears his case.

Clemency is extra-judicial

Malaysian legal groups including the Bar Council previously wrote to Singapore for Nagaenthran to be granted clemency.

Kalidas said Singapore replied saying it found no reason to review the conviction and death sentence, saying Nagaenthran had been accorded due legal process.

His lower-than-average IQ had also been “fully taken into account” when the courts decided he was fully aware of his actions and their legal consequences, said the city-state.

This was similar to Singapore’s reply to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s appeal for clemency for Nagaenthran. The latter’s Malaysian lawyer N Surendran has contended that his client was not, in fact, accorded fair process.

Kalidas remarked that their appeal had been for clemency, not for the charge or sentence to be reviewed.

“Our call to the government of Singapore was in relation to the issue of clemency.

“This is a process that is extra-judicial that takes place after all judicial processes are exhausted,” he said.

Under the Singapore Constitution, the president has the authority to act on the cabinet’s advice to extend leniency towards convicted persons who submit a petition for clemency.

Kalidas thus hoped the city-state would consider the proposal on compassionate grounds.

“We sincerely and strongly urge the government of Singapore to give this all due and necessary consideration.

“We have always had a close relationship with Singapore - our neighbour to the south. We respect its sovereignty and laws, but what we are merely asking for is compassion to be extended to our citizen who has been medically diagnosed as being of impaired intellectual ability and has been languishing in a cell for more than 10 years in a foreign country.

“All we are asking for is humanity,” he said.

Nagaenthran's case has sparked an outcry in Malaysia, Singapore, and internationally with particular attention on his lower-than-average IQ of 69, which is within the range of someone with a mild intellectual disability.