Singapore: Hundreds of mourners crying, reading prayers and banging on drums on Friday at the funeral of a Malaysian man who is mentally disabled in Singapore this week triggered international protests.
Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, was sentenced for trading a small amount of heroin to the city-countries, executed Wednesday after more than a decade in the death sentence.
The case sparked widespread anger, with critics including the United Nations and the European Union who said that hanging someone with intellectual disabilities violated international law.
Singapore confirmed that the death sentence has helped protect the country one of the safest places in Asia.
In the 34 -year -old Tanjung Rambutan hometown, in the northern silver state, around 250 mourners gathered at his home to pay their last respects, according to an AFP reporter.
Nagaenthran is a member of the Malaysian Malaysian Indian Hindu Indian minority, and the funeral follows the tradition of the community, with relatives who are sobbing to place flowers in the coffin.
Prayers are read out, drum banging and fireworks departs, before the corpse is taken to a corpse to be transported to the crematorium.
“My sister is an extraordinary person and we will miss him so much,” his sister, Sarmila Dharmalingam, told AFP.
“Our worst dream come true.”
“My simple message to the world – please delete the death penalty,” he added.
Nagaenthran was arrested at the age of 21 when he tried to enter Singapore with a bunch of heroin weighing about 43 grams (one and a half ounces) – equivalent to about three tablespoons.
Supporters say he has IQ 69, a level recognized as a disability, and forced to commit a crime.
But Singapore has defended the execution, with a drug enforcement agent saying Nagaenthran “knows what he is doing” when he committed a crime and the court found he had no intellectual disability.
Singapore continued the execution of last month after a break of more than two years, and activists were afraid that the authority would start a wave of decoration.
But there is a relief Thursday for Malaysians who were punished for drug violations, Datchinamurthy Kataah, after he won an effort to postpone his hanging.
Datchinamurthy, which was found guilty of heroin trade in Singapore, was scheduled to be executed Friday but was postponed because he had another case that was delayed in court.