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SINGAPORE \u2013 Malaysian news portal MalaysiaNow has been ordered to carry correction notices over false statements in a Nov 9 article concerning the treatment of Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, a drug courier who was executed on Oct 8.<\/p>\n
The Pofma Office, which administers the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act, was instructed by Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong to issue the correction direction to MalaysiaNow under Singapore\u2019s fake news law, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Nov 15.<\/p>\n
Under the order, MalaysiaNow is required to carry correction notices alongside the article on its website, Facebook, X and LinkedIn posts. <\/p>\n
MHA\u2019s Nov 15 statement identified five broad falsehoods in the MalaysiaNow article.<\/p>\n
The first false statement was that Pannir\u2019s execution was carried out without regard for the rule of law, said MHA, noting that all prisoners awaiting capital punishment are afforded due legal process.<\/p>\n
An execution will be scheduled only when such prisoners have exhausted all legal processes in relation to their conviction and sentence, and after the issue of clemency has been dealt with, as is the case with all such prisoners, including Pannir, said MHA.<\/p>\n
It detailed the process from Pannir\u2019s conviction and sentencing by the High Court on May 2, 2017, to Feb 9, 2018, when the Court of Appeal dismissed Pannir\u2019s appeal against his conviction and sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was accorded full due process under the law and represented by legal counsel throughout the trial and appeal,\u201d said MHA.<\/p>\n
The ministry said that following the dismissal of his appeal, Pannir was involved in 11 post-appeal applications between 2019 and 2025, seven of which were joint applications with other prisoners awaiting capital punishment. At the time of Pannir\u2019s execution, all of these applications had concluded, the last of which was dismissed on Oct 7.<\/p>\n
Six petitions for clemency were also submitted to the President on his behalf but all were rejected. <\/p>\n
Pannir was first scheduled for execution on May 24, 2019, but was granted two stays of execution. <\/p>\n
The first was due to a <\/p>\n last-minute application<\/p>\n <\/a> a day before his hanging that he filed to challenge the rejection of his clemency petition, which was subsequently <\/p>\n dismissed by the Court of Appeal on Nov 26, 2021<\/p>\n <\/a>. <\/p>\n He was then scheduled for execution again on Feb 20, 2025, but was <\/p>\n granted a second stay of execution<\/p>\n <\/a> to make another application against his capital sentence. This application was <\/p>\n dismissed by the Court of Appeal <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n on Sept 5<\/p>\n <\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is therefore false and misleading to suggest that the execution of Pannir on Oct 8, 2025, was carried out without regard for the rule of law. Pannir was accorded full due process under the law, and was scheduled for execution after he had exhausted all legal processes (including the clemency process) in relation to his conviction and sentence,\u201d said MHA.<\/p>\n The second false statement concerned the Government\u2019s decision not to issue a certificate of substantive assistance to Pannir.<\/p>\n Drug offenders deemed to have substantively assisted the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in disrupting drug trafficking activities within or outside Singapore can be sentenced to life imprisonment and caning instead of the death penalty, if they are also found to have acted only as a courier.<\/p>\n At the time, Pannir <\/p>\n contended that he had substantively helped the CNB by giving information that led to the arrest of a drug trafficker named Zamri Tahir<\/p>\n <\/a>.<\/p>\n Pannir was not issued such a certificate as the Public Prosecutor determined that he had not provided substantive assistance to CNB, said MHA. <\/p>\n