‘No exceptions for Malaysians on death row in Singapore’

SINGAPORE: Since Pakatan Harapan took power, it has made three requests to stop executions of Malaysians in Singapore, two of whom are drug traffickers, says Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam.

But he said Singapore could not make exceptions for Malaysians sentenced to death as it would undermine the rule of law here.

“Let me be clear. It’s not possible for us to do so regardless of how many requests we receive,” he said.

He added that the Singapore government would not intervene when there were no legal reasons to do so.

“It is not tenable to give a special moratorium to Malaysians and impose it on everyone else, including Singaporeans who commit offences which carry the death penalty,” he said yesterday.

He said the death penalty was imposed because evidence showed that it was an effective deterrent.

Shanmugam said his Malaysian counterpart, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong, who is the de facto Law Minister, had spoken to Senior Minister of State for Law Edwin Tong and written to the Singapore government on the case of Pannir Selvam Pranthaman.

The 31-year-old Malaysian drug mule is on death row here and got a temporary reprieve after the Court of Appeal granted him a stay of execution on Thursday, a day before he was due to be hanged.

“We will respond to Liew once the case is over,” said Shanmugam.

Pannir Selvam had applied for his death sentence to be stayed on the basis that he intended to mount a legal challenge against the rejection of his petition for clemency to President Halimah Yacob.

The three-judge Court of Appeal that granted his request noted that Pannir Selvam was told of the rejection and his execution date just one week in advance.