KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 — The Human Rights Commission of Malays
ia (Suhakam) said today it deeply regrets the Singapore government’s decision to ignore pleas for clemency and execute a Malaysian citizen for drug trafficking.
The commission in a statement issued just hours after the execution said it was disappointed that an advanced country with huge technological strides like Singapore continues to use the death penalty, which it described as draconian practices.
Suhakam said the execution contravened the fundamental right to life and progressive civilisational norms.
It also reminded the island republic that the execution was done amid a growing universal consciousness to abolish the death penalty.
“Suhakam emphasizes that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) makes exception for the imposition of the death penalty only for the ‘most serious’ Crimes,” chief commissioner Tan Sri Razali Ismail said.
“And this has been repeatedly interpreted by the Human Rights Committee responsible for the interpretation of the Covenant that drug offences do not meet this threshold.”
Malaysian Prabu Pathmanathan, 31, was executed at dawn in Singapore’s Changi Prison today, lawyer N. Surendran said in a statement.
Surendran who represents Prabu’s family also confirmed that they have collected his body for cremation later today, but called the hanging by Singapore a lawless act that disregarded the due process.
Prabu was convicted of smuggling 227.82 grams of diamorphine from Malaysia into Singapore in 2014.
Surendran who is also adviser for civil group Lawyers for Liberty claimed the Singapore authorities gave less than a week’s notice on Prabu’s execution to his family even as they and the Malaysian government sought to commute his death sentence.
He said the Singapore President’s Office also rejected petitions for clemency and gave its reply to the family late last night, then questioned the entire manoeuvre which he called “underhanded”.
