Malaysia Now
A Singapore court today granted Malaysian death row inmate Pannir Selvam Pranthaman a stay of execution, just hours before his death sentence was due to be carried out early tomorrow, six years after he was similarly taken off the noose .
Pannir, a drug courier who was controversially convicted and sentenced to death, had filed an application seeking a stay of execution at the appeals court, as he seeks a final bid for clemency after exhausting other legal avenues.
Judge Woo Bih Li ordered a stay of execution for Pannir pending the outcome of his complaint to the Law Society of Singapore against his former lawyer Ong Ying Ping, as well as pending a decision on the constitutionality of the presumptions contained in Singapore’s Misuse of Drugs Act.
He noted that proceedings against Ong would require Pannir’s participation as a key witness and that his execution would mean that he would be denied the right to seek redress.
“Furthermore, there is a strong public interest in the proper prosecution of his complaint against Ong. For these reasons, the applicant (Pannir) submits that his execution should be stayed while the proceedings against Ong are ongoing. This may include, if necessary, the pursuit of his complaint ‘all the way to Singapore’s highest court’,” said Woo in his judgement.
In 2019, Pannir was granted a similar stay of execution just hours before his scheduled execution.
He is awaiting the outcome of a complaint against Ong which he lodged with the Law Society in September last year.
Yesterday, Pannir’s family lamented the silence of the Law Society – the organisation that represents all lawyers in the city-state – on complaints against Ong.
Ong was supposed to represent Pannir late last year in a case involving the illegal disclosure of confidential correspondence of death row inmates.
In a letter to the Law Society, Pannir’s sister Sangkari Pranthaman said Ong had visited Pannir in prison to pressure him into relieving him as his lawyer, but later lied in court that it was Pannir’s decision to release him.
