SINGAPORE: A Singapore court on Monday suspended the scheduled execution of a 33-year-old Indian-origin Malaysian man, convicted for drug trafficking, until an appeal is heard, amid global calls to spare the man from the gallows.
Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, believed to be mentally disabled, was to be hanged at Changi Prison for drug trafficking on Wednesday.
On Monday, Singapore's High Court suspended his scheduled execution until an appeal is heard during an online hearing, the Star Online website reported.
"The High Court has just ordered a stay of execution pending the hearing of the appeal to the Court of Appeal against the decision of the High Court," Nagaenthran's lawyer M Ravi posted on Facebook.
The appeal is scheduled to be heard via videoconference on Tuesday.
If the appeal is dismissed, Nagaenthran could be executed as scheduled.
Nagaenthran was 21 when he was arrested in 2009 for trafficking drugs at Woodlands checkpoint on a causeway link between Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia with a bundle of drugs strapped to his thigh.
He was convicted and sentenced to death in November 2010 for importing 42.72 grams of heroin in 2009.
The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for the death sentence where the amount of heroin imported is more than 15 grams.
The case came under the spotlight late last month when the Singapore Prison Service wrote a letter to Nagaenthran's mother on October 26, informing her that the death sentence on her son would be carried out on November 10.
The family was expected to travel from Ipoh, a major city in northern Peninsular Malaysia, to be with Nagaenthran at Singapore's Changi Prison.
The prison's letter said the family would be allowed extended daily visits till November 10.
The letter was circulated on social media.
Nagaenthran appealed to the Court of Appeal against his conviction and sentence, and his appeal was dismissed in September 2011.
In 2015, he filed a resentencing application to set aside the sentence of death imposed on him, and to substitute it with life imprisonment.
The High Court dismissed this application in 2017, and the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal in 2019.
His petition to the President Halimah Yacob for clemency was also unsuccessful.