Suhakam has urged the government to intervene in the imminent executions of four Malaysians in Singapore for drug trafficking offences.
The four are K Datchinamurthy, P Pannir Selvam, S Saminathan and R Lingkesvaran.
The national human rights commission maintained its opposition to the death penalty, saying it believed in justice, dignity and the possible rehabilitation of all criminals.
While the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) condones the use of the death penalty for serious crimes, it said the UN Human Rights Committee had consistently ruled that drug-related offences do not fall under this category.
“Suhakam therefore urges the government to take all possible diplomatic and legal measures to safeguard the rights and lives of Malaysian citizens on death row abroad.
“Engage international and regional human rights mechanisms to ensure that their cases receive due consideration,” it said in a statement.
The commission also urged Putrajaya to continue taking the lead in advocating the abolition of the death penalty at both regional and international levels.
Last week, Pannir’s bid for a stay of execution pending disciplinary proceedings arising from his complaint to the Law Society against his former lawyer was dismissed by Singapore’s Court of Appeal.
He was convicted of trafficking heroin and sentenced to death in May 2017.
Datchinamurthy, who was sentenced to death in 2015 for smuggling diamorphine, was scheduled to be executed in 2022 but obtained a stay of execution pending his legal suit against the Singapore government over his death sentence.
Saminathan and Lingkesvaran were separately sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking diamorphine.
