Lawyers for Liberty has condemned the Singapore Court of Appeal’s decision today to dismiss the legal challenge by mentally disabled Malaysian citizen Nagaenthran Dharmalingam against his death sentence.
In a statement today, LFL chief coordinator Zaid Malek expressed shock over the court’s refusal to allow an independent psychiatric assessment of Nagaenthran’s current mental state or fitness to be executed.
"The court went as far as branding this reasonable request as a ‘blatant and egregious abuse of the court process’,” he said.
He claimed that the decision by the Singapore Courts is in utter disregard of Singapore’s clear obligation under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to ensure that no persons suffering from mental disabilities are sentenced to death.
"The affidavit filed in support of said application has raised legitimate concerns regarding Nagaenthran’s deteriorating mental psyche which warrants a psychiatric evaluation and cannot be construed as an abuse of the court processes.
"In fact, the application itself is crucial to ensure that Singapore comes in line with its obligation under the CRPD," said Zaid.
"Not only have they outrightly allowed a violation of international law, but the court has also attacked the lawyers for bringing up Nagaenthran’s case.
"The court itself instructed the Singapore Attorney-General Chambers to seek cost from Nagaenthran’s lawyers for filing the legal challenges.
"It is sickening conduct that runs contrary to the rule of law of any civilised nation when lawyers are penalised for daring to raise an issue a matter of life and death," added Zaid.
International obligation violation
LFL, therefore, urged Malaysia to step in and take this matter to the International Court of Justice due to Singapore having blatantly violated their treaty obligation under international law.
"The Singapore government must be held responsible for wilfully ignoring its international obligation to the detriment of our citizen," he said.
Nagaenthran has been on death row for more than a decade for trafficking about 42.7 grammes of heroin into Singapore, which has some of the world's toughest narcotics laws.
He made an appeal on the grounds of mental disability and his lawyer in a previous hearing had asked for time to arrange an independent psychiatric evaluation.
The courts had previously said Nagaenthran knew what he was doing when he committed the crime.
His plight has attracted international attention with a group of United Nations experts and British billionaire Richard Branson joining Malaysia's prime minister and human rights activists to urge Singapore to commute his death sentence. - Mkini
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