Human rights activists have urged Singapore to halt the looming execution of a Malaysian drug trafficker, citing a pending appeal in his home country and claims about flaws in his trial.
Prabagaran Srivijayan was sentenced to death in 2012 for trafficking 22.24 grams of heroin, but has consistently maintained his innocence.
He is expected to be hanged on Friday, according to Amnesty International and other activists quoting members of his family.
Trafficking certain volumes of illegal drugs carries the mandatory death penalty in Singapore, except if certain conditions are met for it to be commuted to a life sentence.
“The Singaporean authorities must immediately halt his execution before another person suffers this inhumane and irreversible punishment,” James Gomez, Amnesty International’s Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific said in a statement on Tuesday.
Amnesty said the convict’s lawyers have raised concerns about the fairness of his trial, including the alleged failure of the authorities “to follow up leads and call on key witnesses that would corroborate his version of events”.