Singapore | Execution of drug mule Pannir Selvam Pranthaman arbitrary, Amnesty International says

Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) unreservedly condemn the execution of Pannir Selvam Pranthaman in Singapore on 8 October 2025, the latest in a string of arbitrary deprivations of life in the country.

Amnesty International and ADPAN renew their call on the government of Singapore to urgently establish a moratorium on executions as a first step towards full abolition of this cruel punishment.

A Malaysian national, Pannir Selvam Pranthaman was convicted on 2 May 2017 of importing 51.84g of diamorphine (heroin) into Singapore and sentenced to the mandatory death penalty. The use of the death penalty for drug-related offences violates international human rights law and standards, which restrict its use to the “most serious crimes”, most recently interpreted as referring to “crimes of extreme gravity involving intentional killing”. (1)

Several UN bodies, including the International Narcotics Control Board, have repeatedly clarified that drug-related offences do not meet this threshold. (2)

We also remain alarmed by the continued resort, as it was in Pannir Selvam Pranthaman’s case, to the mandatory death penalty, which removes judges’ power to consider the particular circumstances of the offence and the background of the convicted person, also in violation of international law and standards.(3)

In 2017, the High Court found Pannir Selvam Pranthaman to have been involved only in transporting drugs, meeting the “courier” requirement under the Misuse of Drugs Act. However, the prosecution did not provide him with a certificate confirming that he substantively assisted investigations to disrupt further drug trafficking activities – a second condition to qualify for sentencing discretion in these cases – leaving no option to the judge but to impose the mandatory death penalty.

This certificate requirement effectively shifts the sentencing decision to the prosecution in violation of the right to a fair trial, as it effectively places the decision between a life-or-death sentence in the hands of an official who is not a neutral party in the trial and should not have such powers. It further undermines the independence of the judiciary, breaking down the separation that must exist between prosecution and court; and violates the principle of “equality of arms,” namely the equal powers of prosecution and defence before the courts. (4)

Pannir Selvam Pranthaman’s conviction also relied on unfair presumptions of guilt under the Misuse of Drugs Act, which the prosecution can invoke at trial to infer knowledge or possession of the drugs, shifting the burden of proof on to the defendant to be rebutted to the reversed –and therefore higher – legal standard of “on balance of probabilities”.

Legal presumptions of guilt violate the right to be presumed innocent – a peremptory norm of customary international law – and other fair trial guarantees under international human rights law that mandate that the burden of proving all charges rests on the prosecution.(5) In addition, presumptions of guilt have also had the effect of lowering the threshold of evidence needed to secure a conviction in capital cases.

Pannir Selvam Pranthaman’s execution has been riddled by human rights violations and we are alarmed by the continued disregard on the part of the Government of Singapore of international safeguards set out under international law and standards to protect people against the arbitrary deprivation of life. The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz, repeatedly warned the government on the unlawfulness of the imminent execution, to no avail. (6)

We also note calls by the Commonwealth Lawyers Association and the Malaysia Bar Association on the Singapore government, in which they highlighted the repentance and cooperation tendered by Pannir

Selvam Pranthaman; as well as the principles and restrictions set out under international human rights law and standards applicable to this case. (7)

The international community must not remain silent and take action to hold the Singapore government accountable for the repeated breaches of international safeguards and restrictions carried out in capital cases, including in the name of flawed drug control and security narratives.

Several persons remain at imminent risk of execution in Singapore. We renew our call on the Government of Singapore to immediately establish a moratorium on all executions; commute all death sentences; and review national legislation to bring it in line with international human rights law and standards, pending full abolition of the death penalty.

Footnotes:

Article 6(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Safeguard No.1 of the UN Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, adopted through UN Economic and Social Council resolution 1984/50.
UN Human Rights Committee, General comment No. 36 (2018) on article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on the right to life, UN Doc. CCPR/C/GC/36, 30 October 2018, para.35; Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (2012), UN Doc. A/67/275, para.122; UN Chief Executives Board, “What we have learned over the last ten years: A summary of knowledge acquired and produced by the UN system on drug-related matters”, UN Doc. E/CN.7/2019/CRP.10; UN Chief Executives Board, “What we have learned over the last ten years: A summary of knowledge acquired and produced by the UN system on drug-related matters”, UN Doc. E/CN.7/2019/CRP.10; Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2021, UN DOC. E/INCB/2021/1, para. 90.
UN Human Rights Committee, General comment No. 36 (2018) on article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on the right to life, CCPR/C/GC/36, 30 October 2018, para.37.
UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 32, Article 14: Right to equality before courts and tribunals and to a fair trial, UN Doc. CCPR/C/GC/32, 23 August 2007, para.8.
UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 24: Issues relating to reservations made upon ratification or accession to the Covenant or the Optional Protocols thereto, or in relation to declarations under article 41 of the Covenant (Art. 41), para.
Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, UN expert urges Singapore to halt planned execution of Malaysian national for drug offence, warns it would amount to arbitrary deprivation of life, 7 October 2025.
Commonwealth Lawyers Association, Statement on the scheduled execution of Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, 7 October 2025, https://www.commonwealthlawyers.com/statement/statement-on-the-scheduled-execution-of-pannir-selvam-pranthaman/; Malaysian Bar Association, Malaysian Bar Urges for Intervention to Halt the Impending Execution of Pannir Selvam Pranthaman (Press release), 6 October 2025.

Source: Amnesty International, Staff, October 11, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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