KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 ― Singapore must postpone executing Malaysian S. Prabagaran for smuggling drugs into the republic pending his application for review, said civil society groups today.

Amnesty International, Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) and Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) met with the representatives from the Singapore High Commission here today to ask that the island state not carry out the death sentence before attempts to bring the case to the International Court of Justice are concluded.

"On Amnesty's side, we are appealing for the Singapore government, the President and the Prime Minister not to hang Prabagaran and to review the laws on death penalty in Singapore and to hopefully abolish it,” Amnesty International Malaysia's executive director Shamini Darshni told reporters.

LFL representative Raul Lee Bhaskaran said the NGOs are contesting whether Prabagaran received a fair trial in the republic.

"We are (also) trying to compel the Malaysian government  and Wisma Putra to take Singapore court,” Raul added.

Prabagaran and his mother V. Eswary filed the judicial review application at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on January 16, seeking leave to obtain a mandamus for the Malaysian government to institute legal action against Singapore at the ICJ.

He was arrested in 2012 with over 20g of banned opiates in 2012 and subsequently convicted of drug trafficking and given the mandatory death sentence.