A Singapore court on Tuesday postponed the imminent execution of a Malaysian man whom campaigners say is mentally disabled after he tested positive for COVID-19, meaning a last-ditch appeal could not proceed.
Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was arrested in 2009 for trafficking a small amount of heroin into the city-state, which has some of the world's toughest drugs laws. He was sentenced to death the following year.
Dharmalingam's lawyer M Ravi filed for an appeal on Monday in a bid to permanently halt his execution on the grounds that the death penalty will breach Singapore's constitution and international human rights laws.
The appeal was granted and his legal team had scrambled to prepare their case within 14 hours to the high court.
But instead, Judge Andrew Phang Boon Leong ordered a further temporary stay on Dharmalingam's execution until he has fully recovered from the virus.
He said "logic, common sense and humanity" were his reasons to delay the hearing.
Dharmalingam had spent more than 12 years on death row until his execution date was set for this week.
His case has been the subject of international outcry as human rights advocates urgently call on the Singaporean government to revoke its death penalty laws.
"There are grave concerns that there have been multiple violations of international human rights in his case, from the mandatory death penalty to its imposition for drug-related offences and concerns on the fairness of the proceedings, which would render his execution unlawful," Amnesty Australia told SBS News.
Mr Ravi told reporters he was "pleasantly surprised that this man, because of COVID, cannot be executed".
He said that he has been "saved by none other than the divine force".
'Illegal, ineffective'
Ahead of the court proceedings, campaigners had warned the appeal might be hastily dismissed, paving the way for the execution to take place Wednesday as originally scheduled.
A group of United Nations human rights experts on Monday added their voice to growing concerns surrounding the case, saying that people with intellectual disabilities should not be executed.
"Resorting to this type of punishment to prevent drug trafficking is not only illegal under international law, it is also ineffective," they said.
The European Union has called for his sentence to be commuted and Malaysia's prime minister has written to his Singaporean counterpart urging a delay in the execution.
An online petition calling for Nagaenthran's death sentence to be commuted has garnered almost 70,000 signatures.
If the execution does eventually go ahead, it will be the first since 2019 in Singapore, which defends its use of capital punishment as an effective deterrent against crime.
Supporters say he has an IQ of 69 - a level recognised as a disability - was struggling with an alcohol problem, and was coerced into committing the crime.
But Singapore's home affairs ministry has defended the decision to press ahead with the hanging, saying that legal rulings had found he "knew what he was doing" at the time of the offence.
Additional reporting by AFP.
