Another Malaysian to be executed by Singapore amid troubling questions over real culprit behind drugs

A Malaysian national controversially sentenced to death in Singapore for drug trafficking, and whose case was at the centre of a scandal involving a Singapore lawyer, will be the next to be executed as the city-state dismisses concerns about his trial.

Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, 38, is scheduled to be executed tomorrow, about eight months after he was granted a stay of execution just hours before his death sentence was due to be carried out.

This comes less than two weeks after 39-year-old Datchinamurthy Kataiah was executed after spending most of the last 14 years on death row.

Pannir’s impending execution will take place amid questions surrounding his 2014 arrest for possession of heroin.

On Sept 27, he was questioned by Malaysian police for three hours at Changi Prison, during which he provided information about those responsible for handing him the drugs.

“We understand that the police have since opened an active investigation into those individuals. In that event, Pannir Selvam would be a material witness in proceedings that could dismantle the very syndicate responsible for cross-border trafficking of narcotics,” lawyer Ramkarpal Singh was quoted as saying by The Star.

Ramkarpal said Bukit Aman has provided no update to Pannir’s lawyers on the investigation.

Lawyers and activists have pointed out that Pannir’s case was rife with violations of international human rights laws, adding that the circumstances of the offence and the fact that he assisted police in arresting drug traffickers had been ignored.

“Pannir has attempted many times to commute his sentence to imprisonment, to no avail. This in spite of him giving information that has assisted in arresting drug traffickers which should be grounds for the issuance of a 'certificate of substantive assistance' by the Public Prosecutor to commute his death sentence,” said Zaid Malek from Lawyers for Liberty.

Zaid said that by proceeding with his execution, Singapore “achieves nothing in actually combating the illegal drug trade or apprehending the drug kingpins.”

Earlier this year, Pannir filed an application seeking a stay of execution at the appeals court, as he made a final bid for clemency after exhausting other legal avenues.

A Singapore court then granted a stay of execution pending the outcome of his complaint to the Law Society of Singapore against his former lawyer Ong Ying Ping.

Ong was supposed to represent Pannir in a case involving the illegal disclosure of confidential correspondence of death row inmates.

Pannir’s family said Ong had visited Pannir in prison to pressure him into relieving him as his lawyer, but later lied in court that it was Pannir’s decision to release him, despite the family paying Ong S$7,000 or RM23,000 for his legal services.

Pannir was arrested in 2014 after being found in possession of 51.84g of heroin and was convicted three years later.

Although the judge found that Pannir had acted as a “courier”, the prosecution did not provide him with a Certificate of Substantial Assistance, leading the court to impose the mandatory sentence of hanging.

“This process violates the right to a fair trial, as it placed the decision between a life-or-death sentence in the hands of the prosecution, which is not a neutral party in the trial and should not have such powers, and as it breaks down the clear separation that must exist between prosecution and the court,” said a joint statement by 20 organisations in February, urging Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to intervene on Pannir’s behalf and spare his life.

In November 2021, the Singapore Court of Appeal rejected Pannir’s final bid to commute the death sentence.

Following this, Pannir’s sister Sangkari Pranthaman wrote a scathing letter to the Singaporean authorities, describing her brother’s case as a “serious miscarriage of justice”.

Sangkari also questioned prison authorities for refusing to allow Malaysian lawyer N Surendran to visit Pannir.

The PAP-led Singapore government has defended its spree of executions in recent years even as neighbouring Malaysia announced a major step to abolish the mandatory death penalty, including for drug offenders.

Last year, nine individuals were executed in Singapore, eight of them for drug-related offences.

In 2022, 23 death row inmates came together to file a historic suit against the Singapore government, accusing authorities of scuttling their right to justice after a series of troubling executions of prisoners who were forced to defend themselves without lawyers in their final hours.

In 2021, then prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and the then Agong, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, wrote to the Singapore government and president seeking leniency for Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a Malaysian who had been diagnosed with intellectual disabilities and sentenced to death for trafficking 43g –about three tablespoons–of heroin.

Despite international outrage over Nagaenthran's case, he was eventually executed in April 2022.