Singapore’s top court will decide Tuesday on the fate of a Malaysian man on death row who is believed to be mentally disabled, his family and a rights group said Friday.
His brother Navinkumar Dharmalingam said in a statement issued through Reprieve that Nagaenthran’s mental state has “severely deteriorated.”
“I don’t think he has any idea that he’s going to be executed. He doesn’t seem to understand it at all. When I visited him, he talked about coming home and eating home-cooked food with our family. It broke my heart that he seemed to think he’s coming home,” Navinkumar said.
“He has other delusions about taking three-hour-long baths and sitting in a garden. He often can’t remember the most basic things and some of what he says is completely incoherent,” added Navinkumar, who visited his brother several times in a Singapore prison before the Nov. 10 appeal hearing.
“Naga is at risk of imminent execution even though he should be protected from the death penalty because of his intellectual disability, and as a victim of trafficking,” said Reprieve’s director Maya Foa.
“Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has made clear his commitment to champion the rights of persons with disabilities. Allowing this travesty of justice to take place would fly in the face of those promises,” Foa added.
Legal experts — including with the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network and Amnesty International — have called the execution of an intellectually disabled man inhumane and a violation of international law and Singapore’s Constitution.
Read the full story in the Washington Post.
