Drug mule's family make final appeal to Singapore president, urge Putrajaya to intervene

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — The family of P. Pannir Selvam, a Malaysian convict who is facing the hangman’s noose in three days in Singapore, have made a last-ditch appeal to the island nation’s president Halimah Yacob and the Malaysian government to intervene.

In a press statement today Pannir’s sister, P. Sangkari said the notice of execution which they received last week came as a “shock” since it was dated on the same day that Halimah had refused Pannir any clemency.

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 consistently pleading innocence.

“We know that in the New Malaysia, our government no longer approves of the death sentence for drug trafficking.

“The Malaysian government is Pannir and our family’s last hope. We implore the Malaysian government to communicate and urge the Singapore government to halt Friday’s execution. Please give Pannir and our family a second chance,” she said.

Lawyers for Liberty adviser N. Surendran had asserted previously that there were several irregularities in the Singapore legal process that will see the Malaysian hanged to death this Friday even though the latter has strong grounds to obtain clemency.

“Once again, Singapore is planning to execute a mere drug mule, while the drug kingpins continue to ply their trade with impunity.

“More disturbingly, Pannir’s final recourse of a clemency petition to the president of Singapore has been tainted with illegality and unlawful acts by the Singapore authorities,” Surendran said.

The former lawmaker highlighted that Pannir had aided the Singapore authorities by providing critical information about one Anand, believed to be the mastermind who had duped Pannir into carrying a package containing drugs to Singapore.

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