Clemency bid gathers steam for Thai trans woman jailed in Malaysia for drugs
Advocates claim the country’s justice system is uneven, with comparisons to swift halved sentence for former prime minister Najib
Thanakorn Sinsanoi, 33, who goes by her female name Pau, has been imprisoned since 2013 after arriving in Malaysia with 1.3kg (2.9lbs) of methamphetamine in her luggage, a package she claimed was packed by a friend.
Pau’s sentence was commuted from a death penalty to 30 years in 2023 after Malaysia lifted mandatory capital punishment.
In prison, she caught tuberculosis twice, the disease ultimately causing her to be quadriplegic – paralysed from the neck down – and having to be wheeled on a hospital bed for her court appearances.
Advocacy group Hayat said that despite her lawyer’s plea for leniency due to her health situation, the court ruled that it cannot commute the sentence further as 30 years was the minimum the law allowed.