Un haut tribunal de Singapour a accepté lundi de bloquer temporairement l’exécution d’un Malaisien souffrant d’un grave handicap mental qui avait été condamné il y a 12 ans à la peine capitale pour trafic de drogue.
La cité-État, qui dispose de l’une des politiques les plus répressives de la planète dans ce domaine, maintient que Nagaenthran Dharmalingam a agi en toute connaissance de cause lorsqu’il a tenté en 2009 de passer la frontière avec une quarantaine de grammes d’héroïne cachés sur lui.
Les défenseurs de l’homme de 33 ans, qui fait l’objet d’une vaste campagne de mobilisation internationale, assurent que ses problèmes cognitifs sont trop importants pour justifier une telle conclusion et devraient minimalement mener à ce que la condamnation à mort soit commuée en peine d’emprisonnement à vie.
PHOTO FOURNIE PAR LA FAMILLE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nagaenthran Dharmalingam tenant l’un de ses neveux, il y a plus de 12 ans.
La volonté de la justice singapourienne d’exécuter par pendaison « une personne aussi vulnérable […] shows that we have gone too far as a society in our stubborn refusal to rule out any approach other than causing suffering and punishment ”to deal with the drug problem, laments Kirsten Han.
The local journalist and activist, who campaigns against the death penalty, rejoiced Monday in an email exchange with Press of the suspension announced in Mr. Dharmalingam’s case, but hastened to warn that the suspension could be short-lived.
Execution scheduled for Wednesday
The highest court of appeal in the country is due to hear the case of the accused on Tuesday and could, if it considers the request unfounded, allow the execution to go ahead on Wednesday as the prison services planned to do. .
The family of Mr. Dharmalingam, who live in Malaysia, were notified two weeks ago by the authorities that the execution would go ahead on November 10 and had to step up the administrative process to get to Singapore and see him. before it’s too late.
Mme Han, who helped raise funds to facilitate their arrival, says relatives of the convict had not been able to see him for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and found him in poor physical and mental condition.
“According to his younger brother Navin, Nagen is not doing well. He seems totally disoriented and has trouble making eye contact. […] It is really worrying to hear. It seems that being alone in a cell for ten years had a heavy impact on him, ”she notes.
Legal proceedings have revealed that the Malaysian national has an IQ of 69 and suffers from a severe attention deficit which, medical experts say, may have prevented him from fully appreciating the risks and merits. of its action.
An appeal court noted that this problem of appreciation “in no way diminished his guilt”. He also dismissed Mr. Dharmalingam’s claims that he was forced under threat to transport the drugs.
The Interior Ministry returned to the case a few days ago to recall that the Singaporean justice had “categorically rejected” the Malaysian man’s version of events while denying that his mental problems could have caused his behavior.
Protection of people with disabilities
The release was intended as a response to an online petition signed by tens of thousands of people who accuse the government of violating in this matter its international commitments to protect people with disabilities.
Several human rights organizations have intervened in the same vein in recent days.
Wanting to take people’s lives is a cruel act in itself, but wanting to hang someone accused of carrying drugs when appalling testimony suggests they may not even fully understand what is happening to them is abhorrent.
Amnesty International
A group of United Nations experts warned in a statement Monday that the use of the death penalty to punish drug trafficking “is contrary to international law” and that such a penalty “cannot be applied to people with serious intellectual and psychosocial disabilities ”.
The families of several others who have also been sentenced to death in Singapore have written to the president of the city-state, Halimah Yacob, asking him to quash the Malaysian man’s sentence.
Many people in the death corridor “have led troubled and difficult lives which have entangled them in drug trafficking” and need support and care to find the right path, argue the signatories, noting that the use of capital punishment “does nothing” in the drug trade.
Kirsten Han notes that authorities do not care about existing data suggesting that their punitive approach “is not helping” to solve the problem and are stubbornly executing suspected traffickers.
“Maybe the government thinks it looks strong and intransigent. In fact, he just looks cruel, ”concludes the journalist.
11
Number of people executed in Singapore in 2018 for drug trafficking
Source: compilation by Kirsten Han