Singapore to execute a mentally disabled man

A mentally challenged Malaysian man will be hung in Singapore next week after losing a last-ditch appeal, his sister said Wednesday, despite widespread worldwide outrage over his plight.

Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was apprehended in 2009 for attempting to smuggle a minor quantity of heroin into the city-state, which has among of the strictest drug prohibitions in the world, and was sentenced to death the following year.

However, the decision to hang him drew worldwide condemnation over worries about his intellectual disability, with both the European Union and British entrepreneur Richard Branson criticising it.

The 34-year-old lost his last appeal last month, when judges dismissed allegations that killing a man with mental problems violates international law.

His family has been notified that he would be killed on Wednesday of next week, according to his sister Sarmila Dharmalingam.

Prior to that, she added, family members, including his mother and three siblings, would come to the city-state to visit him.

M. Ravi, a human rights lawyer based in Singapore who is working with the case, described the news of Nagaenthran’s impending death as “heartbreaking.”

“The Singapore state will never recover from the worldwide embarrassment it will incur as a result of hanging an intellectually challenged person,” he said on social media.