SINGAPORE: The Singapore Court of Appeal yesterday granted Malaysian Pannir Selvam a/l Pranthaman’s application to stay his execution and enable him to challenge the clemency process.
Pannir, 32, who was represented by counsel Too Xing Ji and Lee Ji En of BMS Law LLP, was scheduled to be executed at dawn today.
He filed the stay application from prison pending a challenge upon the rejection of clemency.
The letter from the Singapore President refusing clemency and the notification of execution were both dated May 17, 2019, but the letter notifying his family of the execution was posted out on May 16, 2019.
Pannir’s application was heard before Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and two Judges of Appeal, Judith Prakash and Steven Chong.
In his decision, Menon said Pannir “ought to have reasonable opportunity to take advice on whether he can mount a successful challenge”.
“In a way which matter has transpired, he was notified of both the rejection of his clemency petition and scheduled date of the execution sentence just one week in advance”.
The judges also took into consideration that Too only came into the picture as Pannir’s lawyer yesterday.
“To be fair to him, we could not expect him to be in a position to mount a fully developed argument. In the circumstances, we think that the execution should be stayed until further order.
“The applicant has two weeks to file his intended application together with any supporting evidence. The prosecution have a period of two weeks to respond. Both parties have to file skeleton submission within one week of the prosecution’s response and the matters to refix for hearing before us in short notice,“ said Menon.
Pannir was convicted on June 27, 2017, by the Singapore High Court for trafficking in 51.84 g of diamorphine at Woodlands Checkpoint on Sept 3, 2014.
Also present at the court were his family and Lawyers for Liberty adviser, N Surendran and executive director Latheefa Koya.
Meanwhile, Pannir’s father Pranthaman a/l Rajoo was overjoyed with the Singapore Court of Appeal’s decision to stay the execution, saying he was praying hard that it won’t be shortlived. — Bernama
