Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam

Malaysian drug trafficker

Nagaenthran a/l K.Dharmalingam (13 September 1988 – 27 April 2022) was a Malaysian drug trafficker who was convicted of trafficking 42.72 grams of heroin in April 2009 upon entering Singapore from Malaysia at Woodlands Checkpoint with a bundle of heroin strapped to his thigh.

Nagaenthran confessed to committing the crime, but gave statements claiming that he was ordered to commit the crime out of duress by a mastermind who assaulted him and threatened to kill his girlfriend.

He also claimed he did so to get money to pay off his debts before he later denied any knowledge of the contents of his bundle.

Nagaenthran was sentenced to death by hanging in November 2010.However, his execution was put on hold due to a moratorium placed on all hangings in Singapore pending judicial changes of the mandatory death penalty laws, which considered and approved the imposition of life imprisonment with or without caning for drug traffickers who were couriers or had mental illnesses.

Despite Nagaenthran's multiple appeals, he was assessed as ineligible for re-sentencing because he was found not substantially mentally or intellectually disabled, which was also confirmed by the psychiatrists called upon by his lawyers.

Nagaenthran also lost his appeal for clemency, and he was finally scheduled to hang on 10 November 2021 after spending 11 years on death row.

However, due to both a last-minute appeal and a COVID-19 infection, Nagaenthran's execution was suspended for five months, until the dismissal of his appeal on 29 March 2022.

After this, Nagaenthran was hanged at Changi Prison on 27 April 2022; he was 33.Prior to Nagaenthran's execution, his case attracted international attention, with many activists and foreign organizations asking for Singapore to commute Nagaenthran's death sentence to life imprisonment due to his alleged low IQ and overall, to abolish the death penalty while condemning Singapore for its use of the death penalty on drug traffickers.

The government of Singapore, in response to these pleas, asserted that Nagaenthran was not substantially mentally or intellectually impaired and hence there was no basis for the government to intervene and commute Nagaenthran's death sentence.