34 Thursday April 28 2022 | the times
Wo r l d
Singapore has hanged an intellectu-
ally disabled man despite a global
outcry and appeals for clemency.
Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a
34-year-old Malaysian man, was put
to death after losing a long legal battle
following a conviction for heroin
smuggling, during which tests for the
defence showed he had an IQ of 69 —
the average is between 85 and 115.
Nagaenthran was arrested in 2009
for trafficking heroin weighing about
43g — equivalent to roughly three ta-
blespoons — into the city state, which
has some of the world’s toughest drugs
laws. He was handed a death sentence
the next year.“It is unbelievable that Singapore
proceeded with the execution despite
international appeals to spare his
life,” his sister Sarmila Dharmaling-
am said from Malaysia.
The family was “extremely sad-Singapore executes man with IQ of 69
dened” and “in a state of shock”, she
said. His mother mounted an 11th-
hour legal challenge on Tuesday but
it was rejected by a judge.
Nagaenthran was scheduled to be
hanged in November but this was
delayed by appeal based on the argu-
ment that executing someone with
mental disabilities contravened
international law. He spent more
than a decade mounting legal chal-
lenges and his sentencing provoked
widespread condemnation from the
UN, EU and Sir Richard Branson
among others.
The UN commissioner for human
rights had called for a stay of execu-
tion yesterday. All appeals for clem-
ency were dismissed by Singapore’s
president and courts.Singapore
Joshua ThurstonFamily and supporters held a vigil
for Nagaenthran DharmalingamAung San Suu Kyi is set to remain in
prison into at least her mid-eighties
after the deposed leader of Myanmar
was sentenced to five years on
corruption charges she described as
“absurd”.
The former Nobel peace prize lau-
reate, 76, who was deposed in a mili-
tary coup last February, faced a spe-
cial court in the military-built capital
Naypyidaw over allegations from a
former ally, also arrested by the coun-
try’s military junta, that she took
$600,000 worth of bribes in cash and
gold bars while in office.
Suu Kyi has been in military custo-
dy since the coup. Yesterday’s sen-
tence is added to six years she is
already serving for incitement
against the military, breaching Cov-
id-19 rules and breaking a telecom-
munications law.
She faces a further ten charges with
a potential total sentence of moreSuu Kyi gets five more years
in jail over corruption charge
than 150 years. Journalists were
barred from the session and Suu Kyi’s
lawyers have been banned from
speaking to the media.
However, a member of her team
told international media that the de-
posed leader would appeal against
the sentence.
“The judge arrived at the court at
10am and read the verdict immedi-
ately. It’s unfair and I will appeal. I do
not want to talk about politics, but as
a lawyer, I will continue to do what is
necessary,” the lawyer said.
Under a previous junta regime, Suu
Kyi spent long spells under house
arrest in her family mansion in Yang-
on. She is currently confined in an
undisclosed location in the capital,
with her link to the outside world
limited to brief pre-trial meetings
with her lawyers.
“The days of Aung San Suu Kyi as a
free woman are effectively over,” Phil
Robertson, deputy Asia director of
Human Rights Watch, said. “De-
stroying popular democracy in My-
anmar also means getting rid of AungSan Suu Kyi, and the junta is leaving
nothing to chance.”
Yesterday’s verdict was based on
claims from Phyo Min Thein, the
former chief minister of Yangon and
a former ally of Suu Kyi, who testified
that he had bribed her with $600,000
of cash and gold bars in 2017 and 2018.
Many in Myanmar suspected he
had been coerced into testifying
against Suu Kyi or that the video was
a fake, pointing to his unnatural man-
ner and stilted speech.
Ye Htet, director of the anti-corru-
ption commission, told the court that
the gold and dollars had been confis-
cated from Suu Kyi’s house in Yang-
on. She denied having received them,
calling the allegations “absurd”.
In her next trial, expected to be
held in the coming weeks, Suu Kyi
will be charged along with Sean Tur-
nell, her Australian economic advis-
er, who has also been detained since
the coup, with breaches of the official
secrets act. Those charges carry a
maximum sentence of 14 years’ im-
prisonment.Myanmar
Min Ye Kyaw Bangkok
Gavin Blair To k y oFrance
Adam Sage Paris
The French nun who is the world’s
oldest living person is aiming to beat
the record for longevity, held by one
of her compatriots.
Sister André, who was born Lucile
Randon on February 11, 1904, was
officially proclaimed the oldest living
person this week after Kane Tanaka,
a Japanese woman, died aged 119.
“The good Lord is late,” she told Le
Figaro this winter from her nursing
home near Toulon on the French
Riviera. “I have the feeling he has for-
gotten me.”
Born in Alès in southern
France to a Protestant
family, she had two broth-
ers who fought in the First
World War and survived.
“That was rare,” she told
AFP, the press agency.
“There were more likely
to be two dead.”
She began work at
Good habits are secret to
a long life, says nun, 118
the age of 12 as a nanny looking after
the three children of a doctor in
Marseilles before being taken on in
1920 as a tutor in the family that
owned the Peugeot car company.
Having become a Catholic and
joined the order of the Daughters of
Charity, she took the name Sister
André, a reference to one of her
brothers, who was perplexed by her
conversion. After the Second World
War she worked in hospitals for more
than 30 years, retiring at the age of 75.
“People say that work kills. For me it’s
work that made me live,” she said.
A healthy lifestyle has also helped.
At her care home she gets up at 7am,
has a glass of wine at lunchtime,
sparkling water at suppertime
and enjoys going into the
gardens and talking to other
residents.
The longest life ever to have
been recorded was Jeanne Cal-
ment, who was also born in
southern France — in
Arles. She died in
1997 at the age of- “I think that’s
within range,”
said Sister André. Branching out Giant pandas. such as this one in the Chengdu Panda Base, are no longer on the world’s endangered species list
AN YUAN/CHINA NEWS SERVICE/GETTY IMAGESSister André
began work at
the age of 12