![](http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/death-sentence-300x199.jpg) KUALA LUMPUR: P Chandran is scheduled to be executed in the Kajang prison tomorrow morning and his family makes a last minute bid to save his life today. In a press conference organised by human rights movement Hindraf, Chandran’s younger brother P Thamotharan urged the government to postpone the death sentence on grounds of human rights. Chandran’s family said they hope for a clemency from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and he be given life imprisonment instead. Hindraf has also arranged to submit a memorandum to the King from the family, pleading for the execution to be postponed. On July 19, 2003, Chandran and his 11 friends were involved in a gang fight in Ulu Tiram, Johor in which one K Muthuraman was killed. Following that, on April 16, 2008, the Johor Bahru High Court convicted Chandran for the murder of Muthuraman under section 302 of the Penal Code. Nevertheless, the rest of his friends were acquitted. On Feb 23, 2010, his case was dismissed by the Court of Appeal, and later rejected by the Federal Court in 2012. Chandran had also sent an appeal to the Prison’s Pardons Board in 2012 but this too was rejected. When arrested in 2003, Chandran was 25-years-old and he has been in prison for almost 11 year to-date. According to Thamotharan, the Prison’s Department sent a notice on Feb 3 to the family informing them about the execution of the death sentence tomorrow. They allowed the family to visit Chandran for the last time today. Hindraf’s appeal Meanwhile, Hindraf’s national secretary P Ramesh urged the government to postpone the death sentence based on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) proposal that was tabled at the Human Rights Council in Geneva in October 2013. The Malaysian government agreed to heed the call of the international community on the recommendations made by the Human Rights Council in abolishing the death sentence. Ramesh also said that they have created an online petition in relation to today’s matter and to-date 93 people have signed the petition. Hindraf has also sent a petition to Amnesty International in London as well as to human rights organisations based in New York. Yesterday, Hindraf called on the government to suspend all death sentences pending Putrajaya’s decision to look into Human Rights Council’s recommendations by March 2014. Hindraf’s chairman P Waythamoorthy, who is also a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said Putrajaya had committed to respond on the recommendations made by the Human Rights Council before March 2014. He added that the call for the abolition of the death sentence in Malaysia has been in place since October 2012 when the then de facto law minister Mohamed Nazri Aziz had expressed his intention to move a moratorium bill to abolish death sentence in Malaysia. Waythamoorthy added that for starters, the Attorney General’s Chambers can take immediate steps in suspending the execution of Chandran. Bar Council weighs in
In another development, the Bar Council also came to the support of Chandran’s family in urging the government to suspend Chandran’s execution. Bar Council chairman Christopher Leong urged the government to take appropriate steps to commute the death sentence to one of life imprisonment. “In light of the death sentence review, the authorities and the government should, in the interests of justice, impose an immediate official moratorium on any and all executions of the death sentence. “There are currently about 900 persons on death row awaiting execution and all of these sentences including Chandran’s execution should be stayed pending the results of the review on the mandatory death penalty. “It is unfair, unjust and ghastly to carry out the death sentence when there is currently a possibility of reform of the mandatory death penalty,” said Leong in a statement.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com ... ea-to-stop-hanging/
|