Singapore, Jan 15 (PTI) A five-judge bench of Singapore’s top court will hear on January 24 his appeal against the death sentence awarded to Indian-origin drug smuggler Nagendran K Dharmalingam. This has been said in a media report.
Nagendran (33), a Malaysian national of Indian origin, has challenged the High Court’s decision refusing to allow initiation of judicial review proceedings to challenge the death sentence.
The appeal is to be heard by a bench comprising Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justice Andrew Fang, Justice Judith Prakash, Justice Belinda Eng and Justice Chao Hick Tin, newspaper The Straits Times reported on Friday.
Advocate M Ravi, representing Nagendran, has argued that Nagendran is not mentally fit and should not be treated as a drug smuggler. He has also requested the court to get Nagendran’s mental condition examined by a panel of psychiatrists.
Nagendran was arrested in 2009 and heroin was seized from him. He was convicted in 2010 of smuggling 42.72 grams of heroin and sentenced to death.
According to the newspaper, Nagendran’s appeal against the conviction and sentence was dismissed in 2011. In 2015, Nagendran applied for a life sentence after the law was changed to allow alternative punishment. However, the High Court upheld his death sentence in 2017 after considering the opinion of four psychological experts.
On November 10 last year, Nagendran again challenged the death penalty. However, on the day of appeal on November 9, he was found infected with the corona virus. Thereafter, a three-judge bench stayed the execution of his sentence.
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