OUTRAGE

Welder With IQ of 69 Executed for Smuggling 1.5 Ounces of Heroin

Man who has been on death row since 2010 did not appear to understand he was going to die, his mother said.

Singapore has executed a man said by his supporters to have an IQ of 69, a level that is considered a intellectual disability. The man, Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, a Malaysian national, had been on death row since 2010, when he was arrested attempting to carry 1.5 ounces of heroin from Malaysia into Singapore. His case became a high-profile cause, attracting supporters such as entrepreneur Richard Branson and the actor Stephen Fry and had prompted candlelight vigils in recent days. His supporters say the former welder, whose died Wednesday, smuggled the drug after succumbing to pressure over a loan of around $130, money that he was using to support his father who was due to have a heart operation, and that his case highlighted the futility and injustice of targeting lowly drug mules. Singapore’s chief justice has said that he was “afforded due process.” However his mother said that he was kept in solitary confinement, became incoherent, did not seem to understand that he was facing death, and would talk about “going home and eating his mother’s cooking,” according to a report in The Guardian.