KLUANG, May 21 — The government is seeking ways to help a Malaysian who is scheduled to be hanged in Singapore on Friday for drug trafficking, said Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.
He said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong was making the efforts to try and save Pannir Selvam Pranthaman from the hangman’s noose.
“Just now I discussed with Liew and he is working on behalf of Putrajaya to try and convince the Singapore government to spare him the death penalty,” he told reporters at a Ramadan programme in Kampung Tengah here today.
He was asked to comment on an appeal by Pannir’s family seeking the government’s intervention because Pannir had allegedly not been given enough opportunity to apply for clemency under the republic’s laws.
Saifuddin said in similar cases in the past, the government had also taken the same approach of trying to get a lighter sentence for those sentenced to death.
This is in line with Malaysia’s move to place a moratorium on the mandatory death sentence.
Asked how Putrajaya could resolve the issue of allegedly short notice for carrying out the death sentence, he said there was nothing much the Malaysian government could do.
“Because this is the way how Singapore administer their law. There is not much room for us to complain but normally what we do is we will try our best to help our people,” he said.
Today, Pannir’s family through human rights group Lawyers for Liberty turned to Putrajaya as their last hope to save him from the death penalty.
This followed their unsuccessful attempts to save Pannir, which included sending the final appeal to Singapore President Halimah Yacob.
Pannir, 32, was convicted of the offence by the Singapore High Court on June 27, 2017. — Bernama
