Malaysians on death row in Singapore get short reprieve after appeals court adjourns misconduct suit hearing
KUALA LUMPUR, May 4 — Singapore’s Court of Appeal has directed both parties in the suit alleging procedural breach by the island state’s Attorney General’s Chambers and Prison Authorities to prepare more details and further their arguments, giving three Malaysians on death row short reprieve as the court adjourned the appeal hearing to 10 weeks from now.
“The next hearing will be in 10 weeks as judges wanted both parties to prepare more details or further arguments to explain their respective positions,” Jia Vern Tham, Asian Anti-Death Penalty Network (Adpan) coordinator, told Malay Mail.
“We’re hoping for a positive outcome then as well.”
The suit, filed by 13 prisoners on death row, claimed Singapore’s prison authorities had shared transcripts of their conversations with lawyers with the AGC without their consent, calling it a serious misconduct that could have given prosecutors an unfair advantage in their trials.
Three of the appellants are Malaysian nationals: Ipoh-born Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, and Johor Baru natives Datchinamurthy Kataiah and Saminathan Selvaraju.
Pannir was convicted in 2017 and had his subsequent appeal rejected the following year.
Datchinamurthy was convicted in 2015 and had been scheduled to be executed last year.
The third Malaysian, Saminathan, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2018.
Pannir and Datchinamurthy have outstanding warrants for their execution but the only thing standing between them and their imminent death is an ongoing appeal that will be heard today — an appeal that argues their private communications with their lawyers were leaked to Singapore’s AGC without their knowledge or consent.
A death warrant has yet to be issued for Saminathan.
Singapore’s High Court previously ruled that the leak was merely an oversight on the part of AGC that was “not malicious”.
Adpan, a network of organisations and individuals that is campaigning to abolish capital punishment, said the ruling could have a significant bearing on all the cases, with possible acquittals.
Five Malaysians have been executed for drug law offences in Singapore in the last decade, with nine more currently on death row.
Last year, after the hanging of Nazeri Lajim, a 64-year-old Malay Singaporean national, the United Nations issued a strong statement calling for the island state to halt plans to execute individuals on death row for drug-related charges.
The world body noted there had been a sharp rise in execution notices issued in Singapore in 2022 amid growing international criticism of its persistence to keep capital punishment.
