Dressed in his favourite clothes, Nagen posed for a final photo before he was hanged (2024)

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This was published 2 years ago

By Chris Barrett

Updated

Singapore: Sitting on a stool in jeans, joggers and a black and green polo shirt, Nagaenthran Dharmalingham stared at the camera, a blank expression on his face.

Captured during a photo shoot at Changi prison in the lead up to his execution, it was to be the last image of the intellectually impaired Malaysian man on death row.

Dressed in his favourite clothes, Nagen posed for a final photo before he was hanged (1)

“Before an execution, family members are allowed to buy clothes for the prisoner to wear at a photo shoot,” said Singapore activist and anti-death penalty campaigner Kirsten Han, posting the photograph on social media on Wednesday. “The photos are given to the family shortly before, or after execution. [Nagaenthran’s brother] Navin says this was Nagen’s favourite outfit and photo.”

The 34-year-old was executed inside the prison on Wednesday morning, his sister Sarmila confirmed, as Singapore authorities carried out a death sentence handed out more than a decade ago for drug trafficking.

Hanged at first light, as is the practice in the city state, Nagaenthran’s death was a heartbreaking conclusion for his family and supporters. For years, they had attempted to have his sentence commuted to life in prison, arguing in court that his low IQ of 69 amounted to a mental disability that according to international convention should spare him from capital punishment.

As late as Tuesday afternoon, only hours before the execution, his mother Panchalai Supermaniam mounted a last-ditch effort to buy more time, representing herself as she told Singapore’s highest court: “I want my son back alive.”

There were tearful scenes then, as her last-minute legal challenge was thrown out and Nagaenthran asked for permission from judges to hold the hands of his mother and other family members in court.

“I’d like to make a last-minute request to spend some time with my family members,” he said via a translator. “I’m placing this request so I can hold my family members’ hands. Here in court, Your Honour, I would like to hold my family members’ hands, not in prison. May I please have permission to hold their hands here?”

His lawyers had in previous appeals said how little Nagaenthran comprehended what was ahead of him. “He has some vague idea that something is going to happen to him ... but he thinks he is going to go to a beautiful garden and be happy there,” his Malaysian lawyer N Surendran said last November.

But as the condemned man addressed the court’s three judges from behind a glass screen in the dock, he appeared to know it was the end.

With his request granted, he placed his hands through a small gap in the glass and was able to touch those of his mother and other relatives for a final time. They were also allowed a two-hour farewell in the basement on the court complex in central Singapore, separated by another screen and without physical contact.

Having said their goodbyes, Nagaenthran’s mother and other relatives returned to Malaysia on Wednesday morning, his sister said. His brother Navin told Reuters the body would be sent back to Malaysia where a funeral would be held in the town of Ipoh.

Dressed in his favourite clothes, Nagen posed for a final photo before he was hanged (2)

Nagaenthran, a Malaysian of ethnic Indian origin, grew up in a family of four siblings - two sisters and a brother - in Malaysia’s Perak state, along with his mother, a cleaner, and a closely connected extended family. Later, he worked as a security guard in Singapore and Malaysia.

He spent 13 years behind bars in Singapore, most of them on death row, after being arrested as a 21-year-old when he was discovered trying to smuggle 42.72 grams of heroin into the island nation in 2009.

In recent months, as his legal team launched a final challenge of his sentence, his case attracted international attention, thrusting a spotlight on Singapore’s deployment of the death penalty. British billionaire Richard Branson and Malaysia Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob urged Singapore President Halimah Yacob to grant Nagaenthran clemency, with Branson telling The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in an interview last week that executing Nagaenthran would be “a dark stain on Singapore’s international reputation”.

But those pleas were dismissed and lawyers were unable to secure a reprieve as the courts ruled that Nagaenthran’s “mental responsibility for his offence was not substantially impaired” and that he “clearly understood the nature of his acts”. They also rejected his account that he was acting as a drug mule under duress from a friend who had assaulted him and threatened to kill his girlfriend.

Rights groups were quick to slam Singapore for proceeding with the sentence. Anti-death penalty group Reprieve said in a statement that Nagaenthran’s “name will go down in history as the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice”.

“Hanging an intellectually disabled, mentally unwell man because he was coerced into carrying less than three tablespoons of diamorphine is unjustifiable and a flagrant violation of international laws that Singapore has chosen to sign up to,” the statement said.

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“Capital punishment in Singapore disproportionately targets drug mules rather than the drug lords that traffic or manipulate them. Most of its victims are, like Nagen, poor, vulnerable and from marginalised communities. This is a broken system.”

Amnesty International Asia-Pacific regional director Erwin van der Borght condemned the execution as “a disgraceful act by the Singapore government – ruthlessly carried out despite extensive protests in Singapore and Malaysia and an outcry across the world”.

The Singapore government describes the death penalty as “an important component” of its criminal justice system, arguing its use as punishment for serious crimes such as drug trafficking and murder helps maintain its status as one of the safest places in the world.

The city-state had not executed a prisoner for more than two years until March 30, when 68-year-old Singaporean Abdul Kahar bin Othman was hanged, also for drug importation. A third execution within a month is also due to take place on Friday with another Malaysian drug offender, Datchinamurthy Kataiah, scheduled to be executed.

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Dressed in his favourite clothes, Nagen posed for a final photo before he was hanged (2024)

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