(19 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 19 February 2025
1. Wide of people standing in front of Singapore Embassy
2. Mid of person holding ‘abolish the death penalty’ sign
3. Various of people at candlelight vigil
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Hannah (no surname given), vigil participant:
“I plead to the Singapore government to stop its executions. There’s been plenty, I believe, since the end of last year. Today it should not be happening and I call for a stop to the execution.”
5. Wide of people chanting (English) “abolish death penalty”
6. Various of people holding signs
7. Mid of Arutchelvan Subramaniam, deputy chairman of Socialist Party of Malaysia, speaking
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Arutchelvan Subramaniam, deputy chairman of Socialist Party of Malaysia:
“Death penalty doesn’t solve problems in the world, all over the world. And the person they are persecuting is just a drug mule, he is not the drug lord or drug king.”
9. Various of people holding signs at the vigil
STORYLINE:
Rights activists in Singapore and Malaysia held candlelight vigils Wednesday to protest capital punishment as Singaporean authorities prepare to execute a Malaysian man for drug trafficking despite mounting pressure to halt the sentencing.
Activists in Malaysia will hold a vigil outside the Singapore High Commission in Kuala Lumpur later Wednesday.
Another vigil will be held simultaneously at a park in Singapore to protest Pannir’s execution and the death penalty, as well as to remember those hanged by the city-state.
Pannir Selvam Pranthaman was arrested in 2014 for having 52 grams (about 1.8 ounces) of heroin and sentenced to death in 2017.
He is due to be hanged on Thursday, making him the fourth person to be put to death in the Southeast Asian country this year alone; two others were executed for drug-related crimes and one for murder.
Singapore’s strict laws mandate the death penalty for anyone caught carrying more than 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin and 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of cannabis.
However, critics say the laws only target low-level traffickers and couriers.
Pannir’s family, lawyers, some Malaysian lawmakers and various rights groups noted that the Singapore court had found that he was merely a courier transporting the substance.
The 36-year-old has said he didn’t know he was carrying drugs.
Still, the court had to hand down the death sentence after prosecutors refused to issue Pannir a certificate of substantive assistance, vouching that he helped their investigation, which would have spared him the noose, they said.
"This process violates the right to a fair trial, as it placed the decision between a life-or-death sentence in the hands of the prosecution–which is not a neutral party in the trial,” Amnesty International said.
“We urge the Singapore government to immediately end its unlawful resort to the death penalty and immediately establish a moratorium on all executions."
Malaysian lawmakers called on their country to intervene to halt Pannir’s execution and have him extradited to facilitate further investigation.
The Malaysian government, which recently scrapped the mandatory death penalty, didn’t respond to media queries.
Malaysia has been discussing the abolishment of capital punishment for over a decade.
Pannir, the third of six children, is the son of a church pastor who worked as a lorry driver to make ends meet, said Singapore anti-death penalty activist Kokila Annamalai. He loves music and played in the church choir growing up, she said.
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