Maran Perianen
The Singapore Court of Appeal rejected Pannir Selvam’s judicial review application late last year.
The court found that Pannir Selvam was a “drug courier“.
The public prosecutor, however, did not issue a certificate of substantive assistance.
Pannir’s lawyers argued that the information obtained from Pannir led to the arrest of Zamri Mohd Tahir.
As such, he should be granted a certificate of substantive assistance.
“The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal with brief oral grounds,” said lawyer Too Xing Ji.
Central Narcotics Bureau of Singapore and the certificate of substantive assistance
Mules and narcotics couriers are issued a certificate of substantive assistance if they have assisted The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in disrupting drug trafficking activities.
The certificate would see their potential death sentences reduced to life imprisonment and caning.
Pannir’s sister, Sankari Pranthaman, urged the CNB to be more transparent about how they caught Zamri in a recent letter to MalaysiaNow.
Singapore’s Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon explained that the information provided must have been used by the CNB in some way in delivering their judgment.
“In short, they said that the statute required the information to be used,” added Too.
However, CNB said they did not use Pannir’s information on their affidavit.
The Singapore High Court convicted Pannir Selvam on 2nd May 2017 on a capital charge of importing not less than 51.84g of diamorphine into Singapore.
Singapore’s Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law K. Shanmugam defended the country’s use of the death penalty in non-violent drug cases in a recent interview with BBC HardTalk.
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