KUALA LUMPUR – Singapore will proceed with the execution of Malaysian national K. Datchinamurthy at 3 p.m. today, just hours after it was unexpectedly halted this morning following a last-minute clemency petition.
Datchinamurthy’s lawyer, N. Surendran, confirmed the development to Scoop this afternoon.
“I was only informed that the execution will go ahead this afternoon,” Surendran told Scoop when contacted.
“We received the information suddenly — it was deeply shocking and extremely cruel.”
The 39-year-old from Penang was convicted in 2015 for trafficking 45 grams of heroin into Singapore and has spent more than a decade on death row.
His execution was initially scheduled for 6 a.m. today at Changi Prison but was temporarily suspended late last night after a clemency petition was submitted to the President of Singapore.
Despite that brief reprieve, authorities have now informed the family and legal team that the hanging will proceed this afternoon.
Surendran said the family was notified at 12.30 a.m. today that the execution had been halted, raising hopes that Datchinamurthy’s life might be spared. However, they were informed just hours later to prepare to collect his body by 3 p.m.
“This is an act of cruelty unsurpassed even in the history of Singapore’s harsh death penalty regime,” Surendran said in a statement.
“To pretend to give a reprieve to Dach, raise his hopes and his family’s hopes, and then plunge them into horror and despair again, is unforgivable and uncivilised. It amounts to carrying out the execution in an arbitrary, cruel and unusual manner, which is unlawful and unconstitutional.”
He added that the “cruelty inflicted appears deliberate and unfeeling”, calling the decision “a new low for Singapore” and describing the situation as “state barbarism.”
Surendran confirmed that the family has filed an urgent application to the Singapore Court of Appeal seeking a stay of execution, citing the sudden reversal of events and questioning the legality of proceeding under such circumstances.
“We urge the Singapore government to immediately halt this unlawful execution to allow the Court of Appeal to pronounce on the legality of the scheduled execution,” he said.
Datchinamurthy was arrested in 2011, and his execution was previously stayed in 2022 after he launched a legal challenge against the Singapore government over his death sentence.
His case, along with those of three other Malaysians on death row – P. Pannir Selvam, S. Saminathan, and R. Lingkesvaran – has been highlighted by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), which urged Putrajaya to exhaust all diplomatic and legal avenues to protect its citizens facing capital punishment abroad.
In a related development, The Straits Times reported this week that Singapore police are investigating a group of individuals who went to the Istana earlier this month to deliver letters appealing for clemency on behalf of the four inmates.
Efforts to provide legal representation for the prisoners have also faced setbacks. In January 2024, Singapore’s High Court rejected applications by Australian King’s Counsel Theodoros Kassimatis and British King’s Counsel Edward Fitzgerald to represent three of the Malaysian death-row inmates in their appeals. – September 25, 2025