A Malaysian national convicted of heroin trafficking is scheduled to be executed this week in Singapore, according to anti-death penalty advocates. The case has reignited regional and international calls for the city-state to halt capital punishment.
Datchinamurthy Kataiah, aged 39, will be hanged on Thursday, 26 September 2025, at Singapore’s Changi Prison.
His family was officially notified of the execution date on Sunday, 21 September, according to Kokila Annamalai of the Transformative Justice Collective (TJC).
This will mark the third execution of a Malaysian national and the eleventh overall in Singapore this year.
Datchinamurthy was convicted in 2015 for trafficking approximately 45 grams of heroin into Singapore in 2011. Under Singapore’s Misuse of Drugs Act, the death penalty is mandatory for trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin or over 500 grams of cannabis.
He was previously scheduled for execution in 2022, but obtained a last-minute reprieve pending a constitutional legal challenge. That challenge was ultimately dismissed in August 2025.
At a joint press conference on Monday, 22 September, held with Amnesty International Malaysia and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN), Kokila Annamalai read a letter from Datchinamurthy’s sister, Rani.
She described her brother as “not protesting punishment” but said he believes the death penalty is “too harsh and extreme for a young man’s naive action.”
Rani has travelled to Singapore to spend time with her brother before the scheduled execution.
The three advocacy groups, along with 30 other civil society organisations, issued a joint statement renewing their call to end capital punishment.
They highlighted the cases of three other Malaysian nationals and one Singaporean, all on death row for drug offences, who recently lost final appeals and may also face execution.
Activists argue that Singapore’s capital punishment policy disproportionately affects low-level couriers, often from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, while failing to dismantle larger drug syndicates.
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According to Amnesty International, Singapore increased its number of executions from five in 2022 to nine in 2023. Six of those executions were carried out within a two-month span. As of now, more than 40 individuals remain on death row in Singapore, the majority for drug-related offences.
In contrast, Malaysia has begun moving away from the death penalty.
The Malaysian government abolished the mandatory death sentence in 2023 and allowed judges to impose alternative sentences, such as imprisonment of 30 to 40 years along with caning. Amnesty’s 2024 global report noted that Malaysia commuted over 1,000 death sentences last year alone.
Activists are calling on Malaysia, as current chair of the ASEAN regional bloc, to protect its nationals who may be at risk of execution abroad, particularly those caught up in transnational drug trafficking networks.
While Singapore continues to uphold the death penalty, there has been at least one recent instance of clemency.
The Cabinet under Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had advised President Tharman Shanmugaratnam to commute the sentence of a Singaporean man on death row. In August 2025, the man’s sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, marking the first presidential clemency granted since 1998.
Rights advocates say this precedent demonstrates that policy shifts are possible. However, they warn that Singapore’s drug laws remain among the most severe in the world.
Amnesty International’s report also noted that the Asia-Pacific region continues to lead globally in the number of executions.
However, due to lack of transparency and restricted access to official data in countries such as China, Vietnam, and North Korea, full regional figures remain unavailable.
A public vigil is scheduled for Tuesday, 23 September, at 7.00pm at Hong Lim Park in Singapore. Organisers say the vigil will be held in solidarity with Datchinamurthy and others facing imminent execution.
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