Amnesty International Malaysia (AI-M) has condemned the move to expedite the execution of Rames and Suthar Batumalai, which was supposed to be this Friday, to dawn, tomorrow.

"AI-M condemns the decision to execute the brothers, which seems to be made in a hurried and secretive manner," the group said in a statement.

According to the rights group, the news had caught the family by surprise, as they had only been notified of the executions via letter on March 13 that they are to pay their last visit to the two men on March 14 (today).

“Malaysia carries out executions on Friday mornings and this double execution would be the first ever execution that we are aware of to take place on a Wednesday morning.

"This is symbolic of the rushed nature of this particular execution.” Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu, AI-M’s executive director said.

When contacted, lawyer P Uthayakumar said this is unprecedented because executions normally take place on Fridays.