The Court of Appeal upheld a stay of execution for the drug trafficker a day before he was scheduled to be hanged.SINGAPORE - A death row inmate - one of 13 who have filed a civil case that is pending before the court - appeared to have been "singled out" by a decision to schedule him for execution on April 29.
Representing himself in court, he sought a judicial review in relation to the scheduling of his execution, which he argued resulted in him being treated differently from the other 12 inmates. On Monday, in its written grounds, the apex court said Datchinamurthy has shown that the civil case is a relevant pending proceeding in which his involvement is required.
The apex court said: "The judge did not err in her observation that although it could be that the differential treatment was reasonable in that it was based on legitimate reasons, it appeared at the present stage that the respondent had been 'singled out' by the decision to schedule him for execution on April 29, 2022."
It made a distinction between the unusual context of the current case and unmeritorious stop-gap actions to delay an execution, such as the high-profile case of Malaysian drug trafficker Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam. In 2020, he and fellow inmate Gobi Avedian sought to stay their executions, pending investigations into allegations of "unlawful" hanging methods.