Singapore Hangs Malaysian Pannir Selvam 8 Years After Drug Trafficking Conviction

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Singapore has executed 38-year-old Malaysian Pannir Selvam Pranthaman for trafficking 51.84g of heroin into the country in September 2014

According to the New Straits Times, Pannir's sister Sangkari Pranthaman and Kirsten Han, a Singapore-based member of the Transformative Justice Collective, both confirmed his death today, 8 October.

"Yes, he has been hanged," they told the English daily.

Pannir received the death sentence in 2017 for carrying 51.84g of heroin into Singapore, a country known for having some of the world's harshest narcotics laws.

Under Singaporean law, anyone found guilty of trafficking more than 500g of cannabis or 15g of heroin faces a mandatory death penalty.

Han said the city-state had every reason to spare Pannir, citing his decade-long commitment to reform, including the establishment of an NGO

"There was every reason not to kill Pannir. He and his family had cooperated with the authorities to the best of their ability, he'd spent all his years in prison improving himself, becoming a writer, a poet, an activist.

"Through his family, he'd set up an NGO to assist others in need. He had redeemed himself in every way he could," she said.

On Monday, 6 October, Pannir's lawyer, Too Xing Ji, applied for a stay of execution, arguing that Singapore's Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) should reconsider granting him a certificate of substantive assistance in light of information he provided to Malaysian police about a drug trafficking network operating across the Singapore–Johor border.

However, the application was dismissed. In a written decision, Judge Woo Bih Li said there was no basis for granting a stay of execution.

"There is no basis to grant the present application to order a stay of execution. I therefore dismiss it summarily without the need for an oral hearing.

"In my view, there is nothing exceptional whatsoever about the circumstances of the present case and therefore no basis to exercise the court's inherent jurisdiction and power to stay the applicant's execution," he wrote.

A United Nations (UN) expert described Pannir's execution as an "arbitrary deprivation of life"

In a press release yesterday, 7 October, special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions Morris Tidball-Binz said the decision to proceed with the hanging was based on personal whim or preference rather than on reason or established standards.

"Drug-related offences do not meet the 'most serious crimes' threshold under international human rights law, which is strictly limited to crimes of intentional killing.

"The mandatory imposition of the death penalty is per se arbitrary. Carrying out this execution would therefore amount to an arbitrary deprivation of life," he said.

A candlelight vigil held outside the Singapore High Commission the same day, urging the Singaporean government to spare Pannir, was also unsuccessful in stopping the execution.

Family lawyer N Surendran criticised the move, saying Singapore appeared to be on an "execution spree", with Malaysian inmates being particularly "targeted".

This marks Singapore's second execution of a Malaysian in less than two weeks, following Datchinamurthy Kataiah's hanging on 25 September, reported NST.