Lawyer N Surendran has lambasted Singapore for rushing the appeal hearing on the stay of execution granted to mentally challenged Malaysian citizen Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, who is on death row in the island republic.

The Lawyers for Liberty legal adviser dubbed the appeal, which will be heard this afternoon, as a denial of due process.

"We are dismayed that within hours of the stay being granted, the court has fixed Nov 9, 2021, 2.30pm for hearing of the appeal.

"Another application filed today (yesterday) by Nagaenthran's lawyers for a psychiatric assessment of his deteriorating mental state has also been fixed for 2.30pm on November 9. If both matters are dismissed, then the stay order would no longer have effect," the Malay Mail quoted Surendran saying in a statement.

He further slammed the short period of time the Singapore Court of Appeal had granted the inmate's lawyers to submit the relevant written documents and affidavits, which is 10am today - just four-and-a-half-hours before the appeal hearing.

"No lawyer can be reasonably expected to file written submissions and prepare and file daffidavits overnight. It is a plainly absurd direction from the court with what appears to be the predetermined intent to dismiss both sets of hearings on Nov 9," Surendran further charged.

Yesterday, the Singapore High Court granted a stay of execution on 33-year-old Nagaenthran, whom his lawyers claimed to have borderline intellectual disability with an IQ of 69.

He was to have been executed tomorrow (Nov 10) for trafficking in 42.7g (1.5 ounces) of heroin into Singapore, in 2009.


Source: Malay Mail
Photo source: Malaysiakini, Malay Mail