Pannir Selvam Pranthaman

Pannir Selvam a/l Pranthaman (born 31 July 1987) is a Malaysian drug trafficker who was convicted of trafficking 51.84g of heroin at Woodlands Checkpoint in September 2014.

Born on 31 July 1987 in Ipoh, Malaysia, Pannir Selvam a/l Pranthaman was the third child out of six children in an ethnic Indian family.

He has an older brother and sister, two younger brothers and a younger sister, and all members of the family were very close to each other.

Pannir's father Pranthaman Rajoo was a lorry driver and church pastor, while Pannir's mother Saratha Rajoo was a housewife.

Being a Christian by birth, Pannir was educated at the Anglo-Chinese School in Ipoh.

He was known to be enthusiastic in school sports and had represented his school in some official sport events.

Yet, Pannir did not have a lot of friends in school.

At age 17, Pannir graduated from secondary school after he completed his final-year examinations, known as Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) in Malaysia.

Although the family were having a happy life, their financial situation was not good and they depended on the monthly church allowance (amounted to RM1,000) of Pannir's father to make ends meet, and Pannir would work during the school holidays to provide for his family.

According to an official website detailing his early life and case, after completing his schooling, Pannir worked as a warehouse assistant at Panca Estetik Enterprise.

His colleagues described him as a hardworking and adept young man; his capability at work earned him his first promotion within three months of joining his first job.

During his free time, Pannir loved music and had a hobby of playing drums, which he incorporated as a member of the church band aside from his prayers at the church.

His favourite artistes are Tupac Shakur and Malique.

Pannir was described to be a kind person who helped those in need and was loving towards his family despite being slightly hot-headed.

In 2010, Pannir moved to Singapore where he took up a job as a private security officer.

He later became enrolled at Stamford American International School (SAIS) as a part-time student in June 2013 to further his studies at the same time.

Pannir also became a member of Singapore Heart Foundation and MSQ Singapore.

He also maintained contact with his family while in Singapore, and would still visit them once in a while.

He also financed one of his sisters' university education with his salary from his job in Singapore.

Two of his sisters were university graduates on scholarships; one of his brothers was studying for his Masters in university as well.

On 3 September 2014, 27-year-old Pannir Selvam Pranthaman was arrested at Woodlands Checkpoint, as he was discovered carrying heroin in his possession while entering Singapore.

The total amount of heroin found on Pannir was 51.84g.

Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, if anyone was discovered to be illegally trafficking at least 15g of heroin at the time of his or her arrest, he or she will face the gallows in Singapore.

Pannir was thus in line for the death penalty in Singapore.

He was in remand for two to three years before his trial began.

The news of Pannir's arrest brought shock to Pannir's family, who did not notice anything amiss even though they knew he gambled, smoked and drank sometimes while in Singapore.

During his trial in the High Court, Pannir tried to mount a defence that he was merely a drug mule who acted on the orders of one "Anand" who offered him the job after he was feeling down from losing huge sums of money to gambling.

Anand told him that he should pass the drugs to one person called "Jimmy" (whose real name was Zamri Mohd Tahir), and promised that the proceeds were high and promising, which could discharge his financial losses.

He claimed that he did not know what are the contents he was delivering, and presumed them to be sex medicine or aphrodisiac.

The defence tried to argue that Pannir was not aware that it was heroin he was transporting and hence he had rebutted the presumption that he had the knowledge that he was transporting restricted drugs, to which the prosecution argued otherwise based on Pannir’s admission that he knew he was carrying the drugs and the inconsistencies of his statements and testimony.

Even though Pannir was acknowledged to be a drug mule, however, the prosecution did not issue a certificate of substantive assistance as he was not found to be substantively assisting the authorities in disrupting drug trafficking activities.

Should he be certified so, Pannir would not face death and instead he would receive life imprisonment with caning up to 15 strokes.

His mental responsibility was not impaired according to psychiatric assessments at the time of the offence, which would not make Pannir eligible for life imprisonment either.

Pannir, who was not certified as a drug courier, was sentenced to death in Singapore for his crime in May 2017.

On 2 May 2017, Pannir was found guilty of drug trafficking and his defence was not accepted by the High Court’s judge Lee Seiu Kin, who found that he failed to rebut the presumption of him having knowledge about the drugs.

Since he was not certified as a courier, and he was also not assessed to be suffering from any mental illnesses at the time of the offence, the High Court meted out the one and only sentence available for Pannir relating to his conviction, which was the mandatory death penalty.

After his appeal was dismissed in February 2018, Pannir and his family submitted various clemency petitions, which were all rejected on 17 May 2019.

Pannir was originally scheduled to hang on 24 May, 2019, but Pannir managed to postpone his execution pending a last-minute appeal to challenge the decision to not pardon him and also the prosecution's decision to not certify him as a courier.

This appeal ended in failure in February 2020, and also in November 2021.

Pannir is currently on death row, awaiting his next date of execution.