KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 — Malaysian S. Prabagaran was hanged in Singapore this morning despite calls from the United Nations and others to suspend his execution.

The 29-year-old who was convicted of drug trafficking was executed at Changi Prison at 6am, according to Kirsten Han from a non-governmental group called We Believe in Second Chances.

"The family is collecting his body now,” she was quoted saying in a report by The Star Online.

Prabagaran’s lawyers had also called for a halt on the execution, saying their client still had a case pending with the Malaysian Court of Appeal.

His lawyers had previously filed for an application with the Appellate Court in Putrajaya for the case to brought up to the International Court of Justice.

But the Singapore Court of Appeal rejected the application just a day after the UN Human Rights Office in South-east Asia urged for the execution to be put on hold.

Prabagaran was arrested on a drug charge in 2012 when a car he was driving at the Singapore immigration checkpoint was found to contain 22.24g of diamorphine, the pure form of heroin.

He had however claimed that the car he was driving belonged to other individuals and that he was not aware of the presence of the drugs in the car.