High Court grants stay of execution for drug trafficker

Malaysian drug trafficker Datchinamurthy Kataiah, who was scheduled to be hanged today, was granted a stay of execution by the court yesterday.

The 36-year-old, who represented himself, had sought the stay pending the conclusion of a civil application that he - and other death row inmates - had filed against the Attorney-General.

The application is fixed for hearing on May 20.

The stay was granted by the High Court yesterday morning. It was upheld in the afternoon by a three-judge Court of Appeal.

The apex court will issue grounds of decision at a later date.

Datchinamurthy was convicted in 2015 of trafficking in not less than 44.96g of heroin and given the death penalty. His appeal was dismissed in 2016.

In 2020, he and fellow inmate Gobi Avedian sought to stay their executions, pending investigations into allegations of "unlawful" hanging methods.

Datchinamurthy also complained that his and Gobi's private letters were being "illegally copied and forwarded by Prison" to the Attorney-General's Chambers.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the duo's case.

It also ruled that prison officials are not allowed to forward copies of inmates' documents without the prisoners' consent or a court order.

Last year, Datchinamurthy and 12 other inmates who had their letters forwarded filed a civil application against the Attorney-General.

They wanted the court to declare that the Attorney-General and the Singapore Prison Service had acted unlawfully, by requesting and by disclosing their letters. They also sought damages for breach of confidence and nominal damages for copyright infringement.

This application was withdrawn three months later. In February, the 13 inmates filed a fresh application that was largely identical.

Deputy Senior State Counsel Yang Ziliang said in written submissions that the application does not relate to the validity of Datchinamurthy's conviction or sentence.