KUALA LUMPUR – The family of Malaysian national K. Datchinamurthy has condemned the treatment they faced in his final hours, after Singapore prison authorities refused their pleas for a last visit, call, or even a farewell message before his sudden execution.
According to the rights group Transformative Justice Collective (TJC), the family had been told early Thursday morning that the 39-year-old’s execution at Changi Prison had been halted. But hours later, the Prison Service informed them that his clemency appeal had been rejected and instructed them to attend in the afternoon to identify his body.
“The family pleaded for a final visit or call, but this was refused. The prison also declined to pass on any last message to Datchinamurthy,” TJC said in a statement. “They were struck by shock and grief at this sudden turn of events, as the temporary reprieve they were told of earlier in the morning had briefly given them hope.”
Datchinamurthy’s lawyer, N. Surendran, said yesterday said the sequence of events had been devastating. “(Yesterday) morning at 12.30am, the family received news that the execution was halted. To our shock, a short while (after), the family was informed that the execution would proceed, and to collect the body at 3pm,” he said in a statement.
TJC described the handling of the case as “incredibly painful and cruel, and, frankly, unnecessary,” noting that the President should have received the clemency request weeks earlier.
Datchinamurthy had been on death row for more than a decade after being convicted of trafficking 44.96g of heroin into Singapore, which imposes a mandatory death penalty for trafficking more than 15g.
He was arrested in 2011, sentenced in 2015, and narrowly avoided execution in 2022 when he secured a stay while pursuing a legal challenge.
Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau confirmed the execution, saying capital punishment was imposed only for the most serious crimes, such as large-scale drug trafficking, which it said causes grave harm to abusers, their families, and society.
Earlier this month, Malaysia’s Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) had urged the government to explore all possible diplomatic and legal avenues to protect Datchinamurthy and three other Malaysians still on death row in the city-state. — September 26, 2025