High Court dismisses preliminary application by drug mule on death row
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Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, 32, has seven days to file the necessary application if he wishes to appeal against this decision.
ST PHOTO: JASMINE CHOONG
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SINGAPORE - A preliminary application by a Malaysian drug mule on death row, seeking documents and more information for his legal fight against the rejection of his clemency plea, was dismissed by the High Court on Friday (July 19).
Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, 32, has seven days to file the necessary application if he wishes to appeal against this decision.
His application for permission to start judicial review proceedings has not been heard, and has been adjourned to a later date, said a statement by the Attorney-General Chambers.
In May 2019, Pannir Selvam, who was convicted of importing 51.84g of heroin in 2017, was given a temporary reprieve after the Court of Appeal granted him a stay of execution one day before he was due to be hanged.
He had asked for his death sentence to be stayed on the basis that he intends to mount a legal challenge against the rejection of his clemency petition to President Halimah Yacob.
In granting his request, a three-judge Court of Appeal noted that he ought to have a reasonable opportunity to take legal advice on whether he can mount a successful challenge.
He was told of the rejection of his clemency plea and execution date a week before he was due to be hanged, while his lawyers were instructed on the very day of his 11th-hour bid for a stay of execution.
Subsequently, Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam disclosed that his Malaysian counterpart, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Liew Vui Keong, who is the de facto Law Minister, had spoken to Senior Minister of State for Law Edwin Tong and written to the Singapore Government over Pannir Selvam's case.
Mr Shanmugam said it was one of the three requests to stop executions of Malaysians in Singapore made since the Pakatan Harapan government took power.
But Singapore cannot make exceptions for Malaysians who have been sentenced to death for their offences as it would undermine the rule of law here, he said.
The Singapore Government, he added, will not intervene when there are no legal reasons to do so and when the courts have already imposed a sentence.
"It is not tenable to give a special moratorium to Malaysians, and impose it on everyone else, including Singaporeans who commit offences which carry the death penalty," said Mr Shanmugam.
