KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian K. Datchinamurthy, 39, is scheduled to be executed in Singapore this Thursday for trafficking 44.96g of diamorphine, also known as heroin, in 2011.
Singaporean activist and former lawyer M. Ravi, who once represented him, said he received notice of the execution yesterday and shared the development in a Facebook post.
He also uploaded a photograph of the official notice alongside Datchinamurthy’s picture.
Datchinamurthy was arrested in 2011 and sentenced to death in 2015. He was initially scheduled to be executed in 2022 but managed to secure a stay order from the Singapore High Court while pursuing legal action against the Singapore government.
Ravi recounted a heart-wrenching call with Datchinamurthy’s mother, who struggled to describe the pain of preparing a funeral while her son was still alive.
“This is the cruelty of the death penalty: families must count the hours, wait outside Changi Prison through the night, and be ready to collect the body of the child they raised,” Ravi wrote.
He described Datchinamurthy as one of the “gentlest souls” he had ever met, noting his kindness and dignity.
He added that the case exposed how “fragile” due process can be.
Ravi was referring to a situation where Datchinamurthy had filed a case against the prison department and even won it, but that did not assure him an escape from the gallows.
He said the Singaporean courts had ruled in favour of his former client when prison authorities unlawfully forwarded Datchinamurthy’s confidential correspondence to the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
“Yet he will still be put to death,” he wrote.
Earlier this month, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) highlighted his case along with those of three other Malaysians on death row in Singapore – P. Pannir Selvam, S. Saminathan, and R. Lingkesvaran – while urging the government to use all possible diplomatic and legal avenues to protect and save Malaysians facing the death penalty.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
