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A Malaysian inmate was scheduled to be hanged today (25 September) at Changi Prison in Singapore, but the city state decided to halt the execution at the eleventh hour.
K Datchinamurthy was arrested at the Woodlands Checkpoint in 2011 and later given the death sentence in 2015 for smuggling 44.96 grams of diamorphine into the city. Diamorphine, otherwise known as heroin, is a highly addictive and illegal drug.
The lawyer representing Datchinamurthy’s family, N Surendran, said they received a call from the prison after midnight informing them of the execution being suspended, Free Malaysia Today reported.
Earlier this month, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia called on the government to step in and stop the executions of four Malaysians on Singapore’s death row, including him.
P Pannir Selvam, S Saminathan, and R Lingkesvaran are the other three.
Two King’s Counsels applied to represent Saminathan, Datchinamurthy, and Lingkesvaran in their appeals against their convictions and sentences, but their applications were denied by the Singapore High Court in January 2024.
The Straits Times reported that the court rejected the applications of Edward Fitzgerald from Britain and Theodoros Kassimatis from Australia, who wanted to be admitted to the Singapore Bar on an as-needed basis to represent the prisoners.
He was supposed to be hanged in 2022 but gained a last minute stay of execution
Datchinamurthy was originally supposed to be executed for his crimes on 29 April, 2022.
However, he had a legal challenge (a civil application) pending that was to be heard on 20 May that same year. The application concerned, among other things, the disclosure of of his private letters (and possibly of other death-row inmates) by the prison authorities to the Attorney-General’s Chambers without their consent.
On 28 April 2022, the High Court Granted him a stay of execution pending that legal challenge, according to a report by The Straits Times.
Essentially, his execution was delayed because of a legitimate legal process ongoing concerning his rights (the civil application) which needed to be resolved before carrying out the death sentence.
Major criticisms in Datchinamurthy’s case
Aside from the legal challenge mentioned earlier, there were many other aspects surrounding Datchinamurthy’s case that drew criticism from the public and human rights groups.
On 25 April 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Office issued an official statement, in which they opposed the executions of Datchinamurthy and another Malaysian death row inmate scheduled to be hanged that same year (Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam).
They were worried that Singapore might carry out more hangings, as more death notices were being issued to drug offenders on death row. The UN also urged Singapore to review its drug laws and stop using the death penalty.
Singapore’s strict laws mandate the death penalty for anyone caught carrying more than 15 grams of heroin and 500 grams of cannabis. Critics say the law disproportionately targets low-level traffickers and couriers.
“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control. There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that it has any impact on the use and availability of drugs. As countries around the world do away with the death penalty and embrace drug policy reform, Singapore’s authorities are doing neither.
“The only message that these executions send is that the government of Singapore is willing to once again defy international safeguards on the use of the death penalty,” said global human rights group Amnesty International in an article published in 2023.
Meanehile, Singapore has repeatedly stated that capital punishment is a necessary tool to deter drug trafficking and to protect citizens from the social harms of drugs.
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