KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Malaysian P. Pannir Selvam who was due to be executed tomorrow in Singapore has at the last minute been granted a chance to challenge a previous refusal of clemency.

His lawyers today confirmed that he will not be executed as scheduled tomorrow, following a court hearing earlier today in Singapore.

"The Court of Appeal allowed the stay of execution for Pannir in order to give him time to mount a challenge againt the refusal of clemency. This was unprecedented,” his lawyers said in a statement.

Singapore’s Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon chaired the Singapore Court of Appeal panel that heard Pannir’s application for his execution to be stayed.

Pannir had previously filed the application by himself from prison.

In his application, he had sought for a stay of his execution pending his challenge of both the clemency rejection and the Singapore attorney-general’s refusal to issue a certificate of assistance that would have commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment.

Pannir was initially expected to argue the matter on his own in the Singapore courts today.

But just before the hearing took place, Pannir’s lawyers from Malaysia, N. Surendran and Latheefa Koya managed to instruct two young Malaysian lawyers practising in Singapore to represent him in court.

The two lawyers who argued Pannir’s case today are Too Xing Ji and Lee Ji En.

Latheefa confirmed to Malay Mail that she and Surendran were present in the Singapore courts today as the lawyers who instructed the other two lawyers.

On May 21, Pannir’s sister Sangkari Pranthaman issued a statement on behalf of his family, appealing to the Malaysian government to urge the Singapore government to halt the execution scheduled for tomorrow.

In her statement, Sangkari said the family was stunned when they received a week ago both the notice of execution and the letter refusing clemency — with both documents dated the same day and arriving together.

"Obviously, this can’t be right, and Pannir was not given his chance for clemency under the Singapore laws,” she said, adding that Singapore’s public prosecutor also did not give Pannir the certificate of assistance that "can save his life” and that he was entitled to after he provided information to the authorities.

On May 21, Pannir’s family also submitted a "final clemency appeal” to Singapore president Halimah Yacob.

Pannir, 32 was convicted on June 27, 2017 by the Singapore High Court of allegedly trafficking in 51.84g of diamorphine at the Woodlands Checkpoint on September 3, 2014 despite pleading his innocence.

Surendran, who is also Lawyers for Liberty advisor, previously claimed there were irregularities in the legal process in Singapore in Pannir’s case.

Surendran had said Pannir’s final recourse via a clemency petition to the Singapore president was allegedly "tainted with illegality and unlawful acts by the Singapore authorities”.

Surendran had also previously said Pannir had aided the Singapore authorities, by providing critical information about the alleged mastermind who had duped him into carrying a package containing drugs into Singapore.

Surendran had claimed the Singapore public prosecutor had unreasonably denied the certificate of assistance to Pannir that would have enabled the court to sentence the Malaysian to life imprisonment instead of death.