KUALA LUMPUR – It took a week for Angelia Pranthaman and her family to find out that her brother, Pannir Selvan, was arrested in Singapore for a capital offence, and she claims the Malaysian mission there offered little help.
With Pannir on death row and awaiting a possible execution, Angelia told Scoop that her brother constantly wrote to the Malaysian High Commission in Singapore, requesting a representative to visit him in Changi Prison.
However, according to Angelia, who now runs the anti-death penalty non-governmental organisation Sebaran Kasih, the Malaysian High Commission only visited Pannir before he was initially scheduled to be executed.
Pannir was initially scheduled to be hanged on May 24, 2019, but was granted a stay of execution from Singapore’s Court of Appeal after he challenged the Singapore government’s decision to reject his plea for clemency.
However, in the end, his challenge was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on November 26, 2021.
“Concerning how our overseas mission provides services to arrested citizens, I have made known my complaints to MPs and the relevant ministries.
“Our embassies need to at least tell families or detainees what to do in the event of arrest or prosection.
“When the Malaysian High Commission visited my brother, instead of providing Pannir with advice on what to do, they were telling him about their problems and why they couldn’t do much to help,” Angelia said.
She also highlighted the case of Australians Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers, who were put on death row for drug trafficking in Malaysia, pointing out how their governments pled for their pardon and suggesting that Malaysia needs to do the same.
Forced into activism
Originally from Ipoh, Perak, Angelia said she lived a normal life while attending Sunway University when her brother was arrested.
She had plans to attend Lancaster University, United Kingdom, in her final year, but her efforts to save her brother from death thrust her into activism.
As the founder of Sebaran Kasih, she explains that her organisation collects artwork from Pannir and uses it to highlight the plight of death row inmates.
“At first, I was in denial and blamed a lot of people for what had happened. But then I realised that instead of placing blame, I could do something.
“As long as Pannir is alive, I won’t and must not give up,” Angelia said.
Earlier today, Angelia also spoke at Amnesty International Malaysia’s press conference launching the Global Report: Death Sentences and Executions 2023, updating the public on Pannir’s legal challenges to his death sentence.
She explained that currently Pannir’s lawyers are involved with a legal challenge to oppose the attorney-general of Singapore’s failure to award her brother a Certificate of Substantive Assistance.
Angelia says that the certificate would save Pannir from the gallows, as he had assisted authorities in arresting a drug kingpin.
On September 3, 2014, Pannir was arrested at Woodlands Checkpoint in Singapore for having 51.84g of heroin in his possession.
After spending three years in remand before trial, Pannir insisted to the authorities that he carried the substances on the orders of an individual named “Anand” who said that the items were aphrodisiac medicines.
On May 2, 2017, Pannir was found guilty by the Singapore High Court and sentenced to death. – May 29, 2024