M'sian on death row in S'pore seeks court order for gov't intervention

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian, S. Prabagaran, who is currently in death row in Singapore for drug trafficking, wants a court order to direct the Malaysian government to institute proceedings against the Republic of Singapore in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Prabagaran and his mother, V. Eswary, 55, filed a judicial review application, seeking for leave, through lawyers N. Surendran, Latheefa Koya and Melissa Sasidharan at the High Court registry, today.
They named Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Malaysian government as the respondents.
They are seeking for a declaration that the respondents are legally obliged to protect and give effect to Prabagaran's right to a fair trial and right to life and liberty.
They are also seeking for an order of "Mandamus", to direct the respondents to institute proceedings against Singapore in the ICJ for appropriate reliefs including to annul or effect the conviction and sentence, pursuant to Article 35, 36 and Article 41 of the Statute of the ICJ.
"We have filed the application to compel the minister of Foreign affairs and the Malaysian government to institute legal proceedings against Singapore in the ICJ in order to stop the execution of Prabagaran," said Surendran.
He said all of his appeals have been exhausted and he is on death row currently.
"The reason why we are asking the Malaysian government to refer is because only a state can refer to ICJ, she cannot go to ICJ," said Surendran.
"The main ground of the application is that fair trial process was denied to Prabagaran in Singapore, that is why we say Malaysian government must take it to ICJ," he said.
In the supporting affidavit, Eswary said her son was convicted on July 22, 2014 in Singapore High Court for trafficking 22.24g of "diarmorphine", which is an offence under Section 7 of the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA).
On Sept 22, 2014, Prabagaran was sentenced to death under Section 33 of the MDA and appealed to the Singapore Court of Appeal, which dismissed his appeal on Oct 2, 2015.
Prabagaran then applied to the Court of Appeal to re-open his appeals and to set aside his sentence of death but it was dismissed on Dec 2, 2016.