Lawyer questions cops’ findings info from Pannir had ‘no operational value’

Surendran labelled the dismissal of Pannir’s information as “the final nail in Pannir’s coffin” since it had thrown out any possibility of halting the Malaysian’s execution on Oct 8.

He said Pannir had submitted an application to stay the execution based on the assistance he had rendered to Malaysian police to bust cross-border drug syndicates.

Singapore’s central narcotics bureau had also cited the deputy minister’s remarks in Parliament in its press statement confirming Pannir’s death.

The day before Pannir’s execution, Shamsul said no new investigation was launched despite police interviewing the Malaysian inmate as information he had provided held “no operational value for the police to conduct further investigations”.

He said police had earlier investigated three people named by Pannir and his family, but found no criminal links.

Shamsul also said Singapore’s courts had found drugs taped to Pannir’s leg and hidden in his motorcycle, showing that he was not just a courier.

Surendran disputed this and accused Shamsul of misleading the Dewan Rakyat, saying the Singaporean court had, in fact, ruled that “Pannir was a mere courier” in its judgment.

“This is tantamount to misleading Parliament and the public. No retraction or explanation has so far been given by the government. If the government got such a basic fact wrong in its parliamentary statement, what else did it get wrong?” he said.

Pannir was executed on Wednesday for smuggling 51.84g of diamorphine into Singapore in 2014. He was the second Malaysian to be put to death for a drug offence in the city-state in two weeks, after the execution of K Datchinamurthy, 39, on Sept 25.