KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 — The mother of a mentally disabled man on death row in Singapore is making a last ditch effort to appeal her son’s conviction and death sentence at the republic’s Court of Appeal today.
According to human rights legal group Lawyers for Liberty , Panchalai was unable to find any legal counsel and had to file the appeal with help from friends.“It has become very difficult to secure the services of Singaporean lawyers to take such legal challenges because lawyers have been consistently penalised and heavily fined by the Attorney General’s chambers and judiciary for doing so, resulting in Panchalai having to file the case herself in the court registry.
“This is a blatant denial of fair trial and unheard of in the Commonwealth judicial systems,” LFL chief coordinator Zaid Malek said in a statement here.Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 33, has been on death row for more than a decade for trafficking 42.72 grams of heroin into Singapore, a South-east Asian city-state known for having some of the world’s toughest laws against illegal drugs.
The court had stayed Nagaenthiran’s execution last year without ruling on his appeal after he tested positive for Covid-19 a day before he was due to be hanged.