Muda Slams Deputy Minister S Baseless Misleading Remarks On Pannir Case

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Muda vice-president Dobby Chew has criticised Deputy Home Minister Shamsul Anuar Nasarah for allegedly making false and misleading statements in Parliament regarding the case of death row inmate Pannir Selvam Pranthaman.
Chew (above) said the deputy minister’s remarks in the Dewan Rakyat’s Special Chambers today were “untrue, baseless and misleading,” particularly on three key points.
He said Shamsul’s claim that Pannir was not a drug mule contradicted the 2017 judgment by the Singapore High Court, which explicitly ruled that Pannir met the criteria of a drug courier under Section 33B(2)(i)(a) of the Misuse of Drugs Act.
“It is clear from paragraph 38 of the judgment that the court found Pannir to be a drug mule,” said Chew in a statement today.
He also disputed Shamsul’s assertion that the police had not received any information about Pannir prior to 2019, when Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) reportedly notified them of his arrest.
“If this is true, it shows that police failed to act on or investigate the police report lodged by Pannir’s sister on Oct 31, 2018,” Chew said.
Deputy Home Minister Shamsul Anuar NasarahHe further refuted the deputy minister’s statement that intelligence provided by Pannir “had no operational value,” noting that a team from Bukit Aman was sent to Changi Prison, Singapore and recorded Pannir’s statement for four hours.
“Pannir was instructed to identify several individuals involved in drug trafficking through a photo line-up, and police also recorded statements from other Malaysian death row inmates on the same day,” he added.
Failure to answer critical questions
Chew said Shamsul also failed to answer critical questions, such as the status of investigations against the individuals identified by Pannir and whether they had prior drug-related criminal records.
He reminded that cooperation in such cross-border criminal investigations falls under the purview of the attorney-general, as stipulated in the Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters signed between Malaysia and Singapore.
Chew questioned whether the deputy minister’s reference to the intelligence’s “operational value” was an attempt to align with Singapore’s position and justify the denial of a Certificate of Substantive Assistance (CSA), which could have spared Pannir from execution.
“The government’s failure to act on Pannir’s intelligence, especially when the syndicate members were identifiable, has undermined efforts to combat international drug trafficking,” he said.
Pannir Selvam PranthamanHe further urged Putrajaya to review what he described as an ineffective investigative process into cross-border drug syndicates, arguing that valuable intelligence had been wasted.
“The death sentence imposed on Pannir is not justice. It represents a failure that only benefits the drug syndicates,” he said. - Mkini

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