S’pore dismisses clemency judicial review bid, M’sian drug mule to appeal

• UPDATED 4PM | Added Judge See Kee Oon’s grounds for dismissal. 

The Singapore High Court has dismissed an application for leave by P Pannir Selvam to file for judicial review for his clemency rejection.

The 33-year-old Malaysian is presently on death row at Changi Prison for a drug trafficking conviction.

Contacted by Malaysiakini, lawyer Too Xing Ji said Pannir (above) has chosen to appeal the decision.

“We will be seeing him in prison to take his instructions and advise him and will file the notice of appeal thereafter.

"This is not the end of the matter,” he said.

Pannir has until March 12 to appeal against the decision.

Yesterday, High Court judge See Kee Oon dismissed all three heads of Pannir’s challenge - the Singapore Attorney-General’s refusal to grant him a Certificate of Substantive Assistance (CSA); the Singapore Prison Service’s (SPS) failure to allow his lawyers to interview an inmate as a potential witness; and the cabinet’s advice to President (Halimah Yacob) not to commute his death sentence.

A CSA allows inmates the chance to commute their death sentences to life imprisonment for providing the Singapore Central Narcotics Bureau with information about drug activities.

In his oral grounds of judgment, Justice See ruled that Pannir failed to offer substantive assistance because he offered no new or crucial information to the authorities.

He saw no basis for the application against the SPS as it had eventually allowed the inmate in question to be interviewed.

Justice See also saw no basis for the third challenge, saying it was based on “bare, unsubstantiated and speculative assertions”.    

Pannir’s previous bid for documents was dismissed by the High Court. His appeal was also rejected.

Following his clemency rejection last year, Pannir was scheduled for execution on May 24, 2019 but was granted a stay one day prior when Too and his colleague Lee Ji En stepped in to represent him. 

They successfully argued that he had the right to legal advice to challenge the clemency rejection.

Since obtaining the stay, Pannir’s family has initiated a campaign to save him from death row while he has started writing letters from prison to the public.

The Singapore Prison Service previously disputed the authenticity of the letters but this was refuted by the family, who have begun publishing photos of the letters online. 

Pannir was convicted on June 27, 2017, for trafficking 51.84gm of diamorphine (heroin) into the island state through the Woodlands Checkpoint three years prior.

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