SINGAPORE - Malaysian drug trafficker Datchinamurthy Kataiah, who was scheduled to be hanged on Friday (April 29), was granted a stay of execution by the court on Thursday.
The 36-year-old, who represented himself in court, had sought the stay pending the conclusion of a civil application that he - and other death row inmates - had filed against the Attorney-General (A-G).
The application, seeking declarations and damages over the disclosure of the inmate's private letters, is fixed for hearing on May 20.
The stay was granted by the High Court on Thursday morning.
It was upheld that afternoon after a three-judge Court of Appeal heard and dismissed an appeal by the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC).
The apex court, which comprised Justices Andrew Phang, Judith Prakash and Belinda Ang, will issue detailed grounds of decision at a later date.
Datchinamurthy was convicted in April 2015 of trafficking in not less than 44.96g of heroin and given the death penalty.
His appeal was dismissed in February 2016.
In January 2020, Datchinamurthy and fellow inmate Gobi Avedian sought to stay their executions, pending investigations into allegations that "unlawful" methods were being used in judicial executions.
In April that year, Datchinamurthy complained to the court that his and Gobi's private letters were being "illegally copied and forwarded by Prison" to the AGC.
The copies of the letters received by the AGC were destroyed in June that year.
In August, the Court of Appeal dismissed the duo's case.
The court also ruled that prison officials are not allowed to forward copies of inmates' documents to the AGC without the prisoners' consent or a court order.
However, the court accepted that it was an oversight in this case.
In July 2021, Datchinamurthy and 12 other inmates who had their letters forwarded filed a civil application against the A-G.
They wanted the court to declare that the A-G and the Singapore Prisons Service had acted unlawfully - the former by requesting prisoners' letters and the latter by disclosing them.
They also sought damages for breach of confidence and nominal damages for copyright infringement.
This application was withdrawn three months later, and the inmates' then-lawyer, Mr M. Ravi, was ordered to bear legal costs of $10,000.
In February this year, the 13 inmates filed a fresh application, seeking largely identical declarations and damages.
In arguing against a stay, Deputy Senior State Counsel Yang Ziliang said in written submissions that the inmates' application for declarations and damages is not a court proceeding that relates to the validity of Datchinamurthy's conviction or sentence.
Mr Yang said Datchinamurthy's contention, which he would apply to set aside his conviction and sentence if he succeeds in the civil application, was contrived.
