Appeal hearings for 3 Malaysians on death row in Singapore set for Friday

 

Three Malaysians on death row in Singapore for drug trafficking will have their appeals heard this Friday.

Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, Datchinamurthy Kataiah and Saminathan Selvaraju, are among a dozen who will have their appeals heard.

"The families don't know what to hope for, because the court has a history of siding with the Singapore Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC).

"Denying justice to death row inmates has been a norm for Singapore law and court over many decades," Angelia Pranthaman claimed while speaking to Malaysiakini today.

Angelia is Pannir’s younger sister.

Datchinamurthy, who was first sentenced to death in 2015, was scheduled to be executed last year but obtained a stay of execution from the Singapore High Court pending his legal suit against the Singapore government.

Pannir Selvam Pranthaman

Pannir was charged with trafficking heroin in 2017 while Saminathan was charged with trafficking diamorphine in 2013.

Private correspondence leaked

Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network’s Dobby Chew was reported as saying that the convicted Malaysians were appealing on grounds that their private correspondence with their counsel had on multiple occasions been copied and forwarded to the AGC without their knowledge or consent.

“Some of this correspondence included privileged communications with lawyers. The AGC is also the state organ that prosecuted these prisoners.

“The prisoners had filed a civil suit against the AGC, but it was dismissed by the High Court last year,” he told news portal FMT.

Angelia Pranthaman

Angelia said the allegations that officials had exposed the inmates' private conversations with their counsels should have been taken very seriously.

"The families are very disappointed with the attitude of the Singapore prisons and the AGC,” she added.

Last year, two Malaysians - Kalwant Singh and Nagaenthran Dharmalingam - were executed in July and April respectively.

Nagaenthran's case attracted world attention, with a group of United Nations experts and British billionaire Richard Branson joining Malaysia's prime minister and human rights activists to urge Singapore to commute his death sentence.

His lawyers and activists argued that Nagaenthran's IQ was found to be at 69, a level recognised as an intellectual disability, but Singapore courts determined he knew what he was doing at the time of his crime, and ruled there was no admissible evidence showing any decline in his mental condition.