Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CU)_ This follows another Malaysian Nagaenthran Dharmalingam who was charged with drug trafficking and executed in Singapore’s Changi Prison on Wednesday morning. M Ravi, Datchinamurthy’s Singapore lawyer, announced the stay of execution on his Facebook page, stating that the republic’s High Court granted him the stay of execution. He said, “This is pending the outcome of the hearing of his prison correspondence misconduct legal challenge on May 20.”
Datchinamurthy Kataiah, a Malaysian national who was scheduled to be executed in Singapore on Friday morning April 29, has been given an emergency stay of execution by a Singapore High Court judge. N Surendran, an adviser to Lawyers for Liberty, took to Twitter and announced that Datchinamurty had been given a stay of execution.
Surendran said, “There will be no execution tomorrow (Friday) morning. Datchina argued the case himself as no Singapore lawyer dared to represent for fear of reprisal from the state”. He added, “The application is by way of judicial review to prohibit Friday’s execution on grounds that it is unlawful to execute him while he still has a legal challenge pending which is fixed for hearing on May 20, 2022. It is unheard of for an execution to be carried out while the prisoner’s case is still ongoing in court”.
According to Zaid, “Datchinamurthy will be arguing his own case because he and his family have been unable to secure the services of a lawyer. Lawyers in Singapore are afraid to represent prisoners in these important legal challenges from death row because of fear of reprisals from the attorney general (AG) and the courts. Hence, Datchinamurty who is a layperson is forced to argue his own case in court, upon which his life will depend”.
Singapore police arrested and convicted Datchinamurthy in 2011 on allegations of diamorphine trafficking into Singapore. Earlier this week, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights requested Singapore to postpone the execution of Nagaenthran and Datchinamurthy.
