SINGAPORE: A Malaysian man was granted a stay of execution on Thursday afternoon (May 23) by the Court of Appeal, a day before he was due to face the gallows.
Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, 31, was found guilty of carrying 51.84g of heroin at Woodlands Checkpoint in September 2014.
AdvertisementPannir, who was due to be executed at dawn on Friday, appealed for a stay of execution so that he can challenge the clemency process.
His lawyers argued that the accused was only told a week ago of his execution date and that his petition for clemency to President Halimah Yacob had been rejected.
Chief Justice Sundraresh Menon said that Pannir should “have a reasonable opportunity to take advice on whether he can mount a successful challenge”.
During the hearing, Deputy Public Prosecutor Francis Ng candidly acknowledged that this would not have given Pannir much time to obtain advice on any options he had to appeal the execution of the sentence.
AdvertisementAdvertisementLawyer Too Xing Ji came forward to represent Pannir on the hearing date itself, after learning about the case the night before.
“To be fair to him (Mr Too), we could not expect him to be in a position mount a full developed argument,” said Chief Justice Menon.
"There was also nothing to suggest that the applicant had acted with undue delay or in abuse of the process of the court. In the circumstances, we think the execution should be stayed until further order.”
Pannir's application was also heard by two Judges of Appeal, Judith Prakash and Steven Chong.
In an email to CNA, Mr Too and his colleague Lee Ji En said they came forward to represent Pannir just 10 minutes before the hearing was about to start.
“After finding out about the case last night, I reached out to the various parties to find out more about the case,” said Mr Lee. However, they only managed to get in touch with Pannir’s Malaysian lawyers, N Surendran and Latheefa Koya, on the day of the hearing.
“We were concerned by the fact that Pannir was going to argue in person,” said Mr Lee. “We felt that, given the stakes involved, Pannir deserved legal representation."
Both Mr Lee and Mr Too said they will be helping Pannir with his case.
“We are just happy to have assisted the court in this case, and that Pannir will be given the opportunity to exercise his rights under the law in a meaningful fashion."
Pannir will have two weeks to file his intended application together with any supporting evidence, while the prosecution will also have two weeks to respond.
The oral grounds of decision said that both parties will have to file skeletal submissions within a week of the prosecution’s response, adding that the hearing date for the case will be fixed thereafter.
Pannir's father Pranthaman Rajoo was overjoyed with the Singapore Court of Appeal's decision to stay the execution, and told Bernama he was praying hard that it would not be short-lived.
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