The Attorney-General’s Chambers has indicated that it would be making preliminary objections in two suits meant to compel the Foreign Affairs Minister and Putrajaya to intervene in two death row cases in Singapore.

Lawyers N Surendran and Latheefa Koya, who are representing the plaintiffs in both suits, said this was indicated by senior federal counsel Umar Saifuddin Jaafar and Nadia Hanim when one of the suits was up for case management today.

“As a result of this, Justice Hanipah has fixed March 7 to hear the preliminary objection and the substantive leave (permission) application to have the judicial review be heard on its full merits for both cases,” said Surendran.

In recent weeks, mothers of S Prabagaran and K Datchinamurthy, both convicted for drug trafficking in Singapore and are set to hang, filed separate suits against Putrajaya to compel them to intervene.

Prabagaran’s mother is seeking a judicial review to compel Putrajaya to institute proceedings against Singapore at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to challenge the decision to hang her son.

She is also seeking a declaration that the Malaysian government was legally obligated to protect Prabagaran’s right to a fair trial as well as the right to life and liberty, in accordance with the Federal Constitution.

Datchinamurthy’s mother is seeking a judicial review to challenge Foreign Minister Anifah Aman’s refusal to intervene and bring the matter to the ICJ.

Surendran said the AG’s Chambers have not indicated what are the grounds for objection.

Prabagaran was convicted for trafficking in 22.24 grammes of diamorphine in 2014, while, Datchinamurthy was found guilty of trafficking in 44.96g of diamorphine.

Prabagaran and his family believed that the Singapore court could have imposed a life imprisonment sentence if the Singapore public prosecutor certifies that he had assisted the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), which the bureau did not do.

Meanwhile, Datchinamurthy, who is jobless, claimed that a Singaporean co-accused was given a life sentence when the Singapore prosecutors decided to give their countryman a certificate of substantive assistance.