The family of 31-year-old Malaysian Prabu N Pathmanathan were informed last week he would be executed on Friday..Prabu, 31, had been sentenced to death for committing several acts preparatory to and for the purposes of trafficking in 227.82g of diamorphine or heroin into the island state on Dec 31, 2014.
Law Minister to appeal to S’pore to commute Malaysian’s death sentence
PETALING JAYA: Datuk Liew Vui Keong will write a letter to the
Singapore government to urge it to commute the death sentence of a
Malaysian man who is scheduled to be executed on Friday (Oct 26).
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said he hoped that
Singapore would commute Prabu Pathmanathan’s sentence to life
imprisonment.
Prabu, 31, had been sentenced to death for committing several acts
preparatory to and for the purposes of trafficking in 227.82g of
diamorphine or heroin into the island state on Dec 31, 2014.
“It will be a sad day. I hope they don’t do it,” he told reporters on
Wednesday (Oct 24) when asked what would happen if Singapore went ahead
with the execution.
Earlier
on Wednesday, Lawyers for Liberty advisor N. Surendran urged Putrajaya
to make “urgent and strenuous” efforts to save Prabu from the gallows.
Surendran said Prabu’s family had
been informed that the execution would be held at Changi Prison on
Friday for alleged drug trafficking.
“The family was only informed of the Friday hanging on Oct 20 via a letter from the Singapore Prison Services, which is less than one week’s notice.
“In the same chilling letter, the family was asked to make the ‘necessary funeral arrangements’,” Surendran said.
“The family was only informed of the Friday hanging on Oct 20 via a letter from the Singapore Prison Services, which is less than one week’s notice.
“In the same chilling letter, the family was asked to make the ‘necessary funeral arrangements’,” Surendran said.
According to Surendran, there were doubts surrounding Prabu’s
conviction, adding that the drugs was found in a vehicle driven by
another person, and not Prabu.
He also claimed that the confessions obtained from Prabu by the prosecution for the trial were made under duress.
The Singapore Anti Death Penalty Campaign also called for the Singapore government to halt the execution of Prabu.
“Not only is it irreversible once an execution takes place, it also
creates another set of victims – the loved ones of the executed,” it
said in a statement.
On Oct 15, Liew had announced that the Malaysian government would go
ahead with plans to completely abolish the death penalty in this
country. – Star, 24/10/2018
Human rights groups urge Singapore to halt imminent executions
City-state expected to execute two men, including a Malaysian, following convictions for drug offences.
Singapore is being urged to halt the planned
execution on Friday of two men convicted of drug-related offences amid
reports four people were hanged in the city-state in the past three
weeks.
The family of 31-year-old Malaysian Prabu N
Pathmanathan were informed last week he would be executed on Friday,
human rights groups said. Another man is also scheduled to hang but has
not been named.
“Singapore authorities must immediately halt plans
to kill these men and put a stop to this recent wave of callous
executions,” Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Amnesty International’s Singapore
researcher, said in a statement.
Singapore reportedly hanged a man on Wednesday and three others on October 5 also for drug-related offences, the group said.
Lawyers for Liberty, a Kuala Lumpur-based legal firm that specialises
in human rights cases, urged the Malaysian government to intervene to
stop the hanging.
Executions are usually carried out at dawn at Changi Prison.
“The death penalty is cruel and inhuman and particularly so when used
in drugs cases, which results in the execution of drug mules from poor
socio-economic backgrounds,” the firm’s N Surendran said in a statement.
‘Barbarity’
Admitting time was “running out”, Surendran and Prabu’s mother and
sister delivered an appeal for clemency to Singapore’s president,
Halimah Yacob, on Thursday.
“Malaysia has recognised the barbarity of the death penalty
and has recently announced its total abolition. Having taken that
position, the Malaysian government must do everything possible to save
citizens abroad who are facing execution,” it said.
Malaysia’s government that was elected in May has suspended
executions and announced its intention to abolish the death penalty for
all crimes.
De facto law minister Liew Vui Keong said he would write to the
Singapore government to request Prabu’s death sentence be commuted to
life imprisonment, local media reported on Thursday. Prabu was sentenced
to death in relation to the trafficking of 228kg of heroin into the
island state at the end of 2014.
“It is time for Singapore to re-establish its moratorium on the death
penalty and follow the government of Malaysia’s example,” Amnesty’s
Chhoa-Howard said.
Amnesty said it believes Singapore has carried out six executions
this year, all in relation to drug-offences. It said there were eight
executions last year. Singapore does not publicly disclose information
about its use of the death penalty.
Capital punishment was imposed or implemented for drug-related
offences in 15 countries last year, but executions for such crimes were
recorded in only four – China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.
One-hundred and six countries across the world have abolished the death penalty for all crimes. – Al Jazeera, 25/10/2018
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