Amid outrage about a man’s IQ.

Singapore’s government has justified the execution of a Malaysian man convicted of drug trafficking, which drew international condemnation due to worries about his mental ability.

Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was hung on Wednesday, more than a decade after being convicted of smuggling at least 43 grammes of heroin into Singapore in 2009. In the city-courts, state’s multiple appeals against the punishment had been dismissed.

Lawyers for the 34-year-old, as well as the UN Human Rights Office and businessman Richard Branson, had petitioned Singapore’s government to postpone the execution, claiming the Malaysian was mentally impaired after a court-appointed psychologist determined his IQ to be 69 in 2013.

The Central Narcotics Bureau of Singapore claimed in a statement that Singaporean courts had determined that “Nagaenthran knew what he was doing; and that he did not suffer from intellectual handicap.”

“There has been a lot of misinformation about Nagaenthran, especially about his mental health,” the agency added, citing two cases in the United States in 2021 in which individuals executed had IQs in the same range.

While the Southeast Asian country has moved away from capital punishment for some crimes, it continues to take a hard line on drug trafficking and manufacturing-related offences.

Malaysia, which has had a moratorium on drug-related executions since 2018, has also urged Singapore’s authorities to prevent the execution.

The UN Human Rights Office voiced alarm on April 25 in a press release about “a dramatic surge in the number of execution notices issued in Singapore since the beginning of the year.”