PETALING JAYA: De facto law minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong has denied interferring with the Singapore Court of Appeal’s decision to stay the execution of P. Pannir Selvam, a Malaysian citizen convicted of a drug charge in Singapore.
Liew, who is a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said in a statement today that it was the Singapore Court of Appeal that had granted the stay to P. Pannir Selvam to allow him to challenge the rejection of his clemency petition.
“The allegation that I interferred with their judicial system is totally unfounded and baseless. It’s purely a figment of an imagination on someone’s part,“ Liew said.
Liew added that despite writing to Singapore’s Ministry of Law last Wednesday, it was the court that made the decision on the stay, not its executive branch.
“Although I haven’t had the benefit of reading the grounds of decision of the Singapore Court of Appeal, what’s obvious is that the Singapore court made its decision (after) having considered the prevailing circumstances and the rule of law applicable to the case.
“It is therefore equally untenable to allege that there was interference on my part in their judicial process. I, and every one of us here in Malaysia, respect the decision of the Singapore court.
“In this case, the Singapore court only granted a temporary reprieve to Pannir Selvam to allow him to exhaust his legal and constitutional rights by engaging a competent counsel of his choice.
“It is absolutely abhorrent to justice if he is denied such basic rights and is executed without being heard.”
Pannir Selvam, 31, was scheduled to be executed last Friday after being convicted in 2017 of trafficking 51.84g of diamorphine into Singapore. His execution was put on hold by the stay he received just a day earlier.
Following that, Singapore Law Minister K. Shanmugam said it was not tenable for Singapore to go easy on Malaysian drug offenders, and criticised the Malaysian government for making three requests over the past year to stop the execution of Malaysians in the country.
Shanmugam reportedly said there were some in Malaysia who are “ideologically opposed” to the death penalty.
“At the same time, we impose the death penalty in Singapore, and I expect that Malaysia will respect that position as well.”
Shanmugam said Singapore had received three requests from Malaysia since May 9 last year to intervene in the executions of Malaysian convicts, and two of involved drug traffickers.
