SINGAPORE – The Court of Appeal on Tuesday (March 29) rejected a bid by Malaysian drug trafficker Nagaenthran Okay. Dharmalingam to start out judicial evaluate proceedings to problem his demise sentence.
Nagaenthran’s execution seems set to go forward, after the five-judge court docket additionally dismissed his request for his pending execution to be stayed whereas he locates a panel of psychiatrists to evaluate him.
Delivering the court docket’s determination, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon stated the case Nagaenthran mounted was “baseless and without merit both as a matter of fact and of law”.
Nagaenthran’s lawyer, Ms Violet Netto, had argued on March 1 that the 33-year-old was “not competent” to be executed, claiming he was mentally disabled.
Chief Justice Menon stated there was no admissible proof exhibiting any decline in Nagaenthran’s psychological situation.
The solely proof supplied by Nagaenthran’s former lawyer Mr M. Ravi was a “self-serving” affidavit through which he speculated that the inmate had the psychological age of an individual underneath the age of 18.
There was no credible foundation for Mr Ravi’s assertion, which appeared to be based mostly on a single interplay with Nagaenthran on Nov 2 final 12 months, lasting lower than half an hour, stated the Chief Justice.
Chief Justice Menon additionally identified that Nagaenthran’s legal professionals had objected to psychiatric and medical experiences regarding the inmate’s scheduled check-ups – carried out on Aug 5 and Nov 3 final 12 months – from being admitted as proof to the court docket.
“Having called his medical condition into question, we cannot see how the appellant can, at the same time, in good faith, prevent access to evidence that pertains to the very condition in question,” he stated.
Chief Justice Menon stated these experiences, that are presumed to be goal, may have shed actual gentle on Nagaenthran’s psychological situation.
The legal professionals’ objection helps the inference that Nagaenthran is looking for to stop the court docket from accessing that proof as a result of he is aware of or believes it could undermine his case, he stated.
As for 2 experiences from abroad consultants submitted by Mr Ravi in November final 12 months, Chief Justice Menon stated no reliance could possibly be positioned on them as a result of the consultants had not even spoken to Nagaenthran.
The Chief Justice stated Nagaenthran has been afforded due course of underneath legislation, and it was not open to him to problem the end result of that course of when he has put nothing ahead to recommend that he does have a case to be thought of.
“In our judgment, these proceedings constitute a blatant and egregious abuse of the court’s processes,” he stated.
The Chief Justice added that the way in which the case has been carried out confirmed that it was a “stop-gap measure” devised by Nagaenthran and his legal professionals to attempt to delay the execution.
“It is improper to engage in or to encourage last-ditch attempts to reopen concluded matters without a reasonable basis,” stated Chief Justice Menon.
He added that at a societal degree, the correct recourse for these with “passionate views that run counter to imposition of the death penalty” was to hunt legislative change.
“But as long as the law validly provides for the imposition of capital punishment in the specified circumstances, it is improper for counsel to abuse the process of the court and thereby bring the administration of criminal justice into disrepute by filing one hopeless application after another and by drip-feeding the supposed evidence.”
Nagaenthran was arrested in 2009 on the age of 21 with heroin strapped to his thigh.
He was convicted of trafficking 42.72g of heroin in 2010 and given the obligatory demise penalty.
His appeals in opposition to conviction and sentence had been dismissed in 2011.
In 2017, the High Court discovered that he didn’t qualify to be given life imprisonment, after contemplating the proof from 4 psychological and psychiatric consultants.
Nagaenthran’s case got here underneath the highlight in October final 12 months after a letter from the Singapore Prison Service to his mom in Ipoh, informing her that the demise sentence could be carried out on Nov 10, was circulated on social media.
In an eleventh-hour bid to halt the execution, his former lawyer Ravi contended that, based mostly on his opinion, Nagaenthran had the “mental age” of an individual under 18 years outdated.
The bid for permission to start out judicial evaluate proceedings to problem his demise sentence was dismissed by the High Court. He then appealed to the Court of Appeal.
The post Apex court rejects bid by Malaysian drug trafficker to challenge death sentence first appeared on Umorr.
