Malaysian Datchinamurthy granted stay of execution in Singapore

SINGAPORE - The Singapore High Court today granted a stay of execution for Malaysian K. Datchinamurthy, who was supposed to be executed tomorrow (April 29), just two days after the execution of another Malaysian, Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam.

According to Singaporean lawyer M. Ravi, the stay was allowed pending the outcome of the hearing of his prison correspondence misconduct legal challenge on May 20.

"Datch (Datchinamurthy) was supposed to be hanged tomorrow,” said M. Ravi in his latest update on Facebook.

Datchinamurthy, 36, was charged with trafficking 44.96grammes of diamorphine into Singapore in 2011 and sentenced to death in 2015, while Nagaenthran was sentenced to death in 2010 for trafficking 42.72g heroin in 2009 into Singapore which was known to have among the world's toughest narcotics laws.

Datchinamurthy's family had recently received a notice that his execution was scheduled for April 29.

He filed the application for a stay of execution himself and the hearing was conducted in a close-door session in court at 9.30am today.

M.Ravi, who previously represented Datchinamurthy, in another posting, said the May 20 proceeding was in regards to the prison sending to the Attorney-General his privileged communications with his lawyers.

"An application has been filed by our firm previously to determine the extent of the breach by the prison.

"The question before the court is can they hang him this Friday when he has a hearing date fixed on the case to be heard on May 20,” he wrote. - BERNAMA