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UN Experts Urge Singapore To Halt Execution Of Malaysian National On Drug Charges
GENEVA (18 February 2025) – Singapore must urgently halt the execution of Malaysian national Pannir Selvam Pranthaman for drug trafficking, UN experts* said today.
“We have repeatedly** called on Singapore to halt executions for drug offences which are illegal under international human rights law on several grounds,” the experts said.
Pranthaman’s execution has been scheduled for dawn on 20 February. His family received four days’ notice.
“We reiterate that under international law, only crimes of extreme gravity involving intentional killing meet the threshold for the death penalty,” the experts said. “Mandatory death sentences are inherently over-inclusive and inevitably violate human rights law.”
“There is no evidence that the death penalty does more than any other punishment to curb or prevent drug trafficking,” they said.
The experts warned that the rate of execution notices for drug-related offences in Singapore was “highly alarming”. They noted that eight people have already been executed on these charges since 1 October 2024, a period of just four and a half months.
“We once again urge Singaporean authorities to halt the execution of Pannir Selvam Pranthaman and commute his death sentence to imprisonment in line with international human rights law and standards,” the experts said.
“We also call on Malaysian authorities to take any steps at their disposal to support Pranthaman’s case,” they said.
The experts have written to the Governments of Singapore and Malaysia regarding this case.
Note:
*The experts: Mr. Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial summary or arbitrary executions, Ms. Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and Mr. Matthew Gillett (Chair-Rapporteur), Ms. Ganna Yudkivska (Vice-Chair on Communications), Ms. Priya Gopalan (Vice-Chair on Follow-Up), Ms. Miriam Estrada Castillo, and Mr. Mumba Malila – Working Group on arbitrary detention
** See a letter on 19 November 2024, to which the Government of Singapore replied and a press release on 20 November and another press release on 28 November 2024.
Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent fromany government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR. Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/
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