Malaysian P Pannir Selvam’s (above) application for leave to challenge his clemency rejection will be heard by the Singapore High Court on Feb 11 and 12 next year.
The Changi Prison inmate is presently on death row for a drug trafficking charge.
Pannir’s lawyer Too Xing Ji told Malaysiakini that the leave application to commence judicial review is set to be heard in chambers before Justice See Kee Oon.
The Singapore Attorney-General’s Chambers will be challenging the application.
“Pannir is asking for permission from the Singapore High Court to start legal proceedings to challenge the Public Prosecutor's failure to certify that Pannir had substantively assisted the Singapore drug authorities in disrupting drug trafficking activities; the (Singapore) Cabinet's advice to Singapore President (Halimah Yacob) not to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment; and the prison's refusal to allow his lawyers to interview a witness who was a fellow death-row inmate,” Too said when contacted.
Halimah had turned down the 32-year-old’s appeal for clemency in May this year.
Pannir was also rejected in his application for a Certificate of Substantive Assistance, which allows inmates the chance to commute their death sentences to life imprisonment in exchange for providing the Singapore Central Narcotics Bureau with information about drug activities.
His lawyers previously requested documents to aid his case, but the discovery application was dismissed by the Singapore High Court.
N Surendran (above), who represents Pannir’s family in Malaysia, hoped that leave for a judicial review would be granted.
“This judicial review, for the family, is the difference between life and death. They must win this to save Pannir. There are strong grounds for the court to allow the application, and we are all hopeful,” he told Malaysiakini.
Following his clemency rejection, Pannir was scheduled for execution on May 24, but was granted a stay one day prior when Too and his colleague Lee Ji En stepped in to represent him.
They successfully argued that he had the right to legal advice to challenge the clemency rejection.
Since obtaining the stay, Pannir’s family has initiated a campaign to save him from death row, while he has started writing letters from prison to the public.
The Singapore Prison Service previously disputed the authenticity of the letters, but this was refuted by the family, who have begun publishing photos of the letters online.
The Malaysian was convicted on June 27, 2017, for trafficking 51.84gm of diamorphine (heroin) into the island state through the Woodlands Checkpoint three years prior. - Mkini
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