Singapore has reportedly decided to carry out the execution of Malaysian death row inmate K Datchinamurthy this morning.
This comes after the 39-year-old’s death sentence was previously suspended.
As reported by FMT, Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) confirmed the execution in a statement, saying Datchinamurthy was “accorded full due process under the law and was represented by legal counsel during trial and appeal”.
It added that his petitions for clemency to the Singapore president were unsuccessful.
“Capital punishment is imposed only for the most serious crimes, such as the trafficking of significant quantities of drugs which cause very serious harm, not just to individual drug abusers, but also to their families and the wider society,” it said.
Family denied final visit & message
Datchinamurthy was originally scheduled to be executed today, but his family received a midnight call from Changi Prison saying it would not proceed as planned, with no reason given for the sudden halt.
However, Singaporean activist Kokila Annamalai said the prison later called his family again around 1.40pm, informing them that the president had rejected the plea for clemency and that the execution would proceed.
In a Facebook post, Kokila said the family was told to collect Datchinamurthy’s body at 3pm, but the prison refused to disclose the exact time of the execution.
“The family repeatedly pleaded for a last visit or phone call, and when that was refused, asked if they could pass Datchinamurthy a message through the prison officer on the line. The prison said no to that too.
There are no words for how degrading, cruel and outrageous this treatment is, with the family’s dignity and sanity toyed with so sadistically,” she wrote.
Datchinamurthy was arrested in 2011 and sentenced to death in 2015 for drug trafficking.
He was supposed to be executed in 2022 but obtained a stay of execution after filing a legal challenge against the Singapore government over his death sentence.
Read more about the case here:
