KUALA LUMPUR – The last-ditch attempt to spare the life of Malaysian Pausi Jefridin fell through after the Singapore appellate court dismissed his appeal this evening.
Human rights group Lawyers for Liberty head coordinator Zaid Malek reported that the court rejected the appeals made by Pausi and Singaporean inmate Roslan Bakar, who was also scheduled to be executed earlier today.
This came after the two were granted an eleventh-hour interim stay of execution.
“The Court of Appeal has dismissed Pausi and Roslan’s appeal,” Zaid said on Twitter.
“The Singapore AGC (attorney-general’s chamber) is seeking punitive costs against the defence counsel,” he added.
The Court of Appeal has dismissed Pausi and Roslan's appeal. The Singapore AGC is seeking punitive costs against the defence counsel.
— Zaid Malek (@ZaidMalek) February 16, 2022
However, Zaid did not reveal the rescheduled date and time for the two to serve the death sentence.
Meanwhile, another Lawyers for Liberty member N. Surendran said Pausi’s lawyers could still seek clemency from Singapore's president.
“Certainly, he deserves clemency due to his mental disability,” Surendran told The Vibes when contacted.
“The applications filed by legal reps are to prohibit the execution on grounds of mental disability.”
Both Pausi and Roslan were sentenced to death in Singapore for drug trafficking in 2010.
The planned hanging today came despite heavy protests from various quarters, especially rights groups seeking the Singapore government’s consideration to grant clemency to Pausi, who has been confirmed by an expert to have a low IQ.
The Singapore Court of Appeal had yesterday dismissed Pausi and Roslan’s lawyers’ last-ditch applications to have their executions halted.
During Pausi’s trial, a medical expert had informed the court that he had an IQ level of 67, below the threshold of 70 to declare a person as intellectually disabled.
Roslan, meanwhile, was found by experts to have “limited capacity for judgment and decision-making due to underlying cognitive defects”. – The Vibes, February 16, 2022
