Sarawakian Kho Jabing, whose was scheduled to be hanged in Singapore prison this morning, was granted a stay of execution last night.

This comes after lawyer Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss mounted a legal challenge on the constitutionality of certain aspects of the amendments to the mandatory death penalty in the republic.

She had sought a stay of execution pending the scheduling of a hearing date for her application to be heard but the judicial commissioner denied issuing a stay of execution.

The judicial commissioner only allowed a temporary stay to be granted whilst the decision was being appealed, reported local daily The Star.

This was on condition that a notice of appeal be filed by Kho’s lawyers by 11pm last night, which was complied with.

Yesterday evening, the Singapore Court of Appeal had dismissed an application challenging the death sentence.

Lawyer Gino Hardial Singh had filed the application challenging the court judgment on grounds of apparent bias as Court of Appeal judge Andrew Phang had sat on both of Kho’s appeal hearings.

These were among the final efforts to save Kho from death row.

Kho was convicted of murder and sentenced to mandatory death penalty on July 30, 2010, but was re-sentenced to life imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane after the Singaporean government reviewed its death penalty laws in 2012.

On Jan 14 last year, the Singaporean Court of Appeal however reportedly reimposed the death sentence on Kho, in an unanimous decision.

On May 12, Kho's family was informed that his execution would be scheduled for May 20.