Pannir Selvam a/l Pranthaman (31 July 1987 – 8 October 2025) was a Malaysian drug trafficker who was convicted of trafficking of heroin at Woodlands Checkpoint in September 2014. Pannir, who was not certified as a drug courier, was sentenced to death in Singapore for his crime in May 2017. 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 he 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. A second death warrant scheduled Pannir's execution for 20 February 2025, but it was delayed due to another appeal. After losing his final appeal, Pannir was executed by hanging in Changi Prison on 8 October 2025.
Early life Born on 31 July 1987 in Ipoh, Malaysia, Pannir Selvam a/l Pranthaman was the third child out of six children in an ethnic Malaysian Indian family. He had an older brother and sister, two younger brothers and a younger sister. 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. The family's financial situation was poor and they depended on Pannir's father's RM1,000 monthly church allowance, and Pannir worked during the school holidays to provide for his family.
In 2010, Pannir moved to Singapore, where he took up a job as a private security officer. He later enrolled at Stamford American International School (SAIS) as a part-time student in June 2013 to further his studies. Pannir also became a member of the Singapore Heart Foundation and MSQ Singapore.
Trafficking of heroin and arrest Capture and trial 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. A body search by Singapore authorities uncovered three packets of drugs taped to his groin area. During the initial interview, Pannir was uncooperative and answered "I don't know" to majority of the questions posted.
Under Singapore's Misuse of Drugs Act, anyone discovered to be illegally trafficking at least of heroin at the time of their arrest will be hanged. He was in remand for 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 a drug mule who acted on the orders of one "Anand" who offered him the job after losing huge sums of money to gambling. Anand told him that he should pass the drugs to a person called "Jimmy" (whose real name was Zamri Mohd Tahir), and promised that the proceeds were high, 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, to which the prosecution argued that Pannir knew he was carrying the drugs and cited 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. 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.
On 2 May 2017, Pannir was found guilty of drug trafficking by the High Court's judge Lee Seiu Kin. He was sentenced to the mandatory death penalty.
Appeal and clemency plea The Court of Appeal heard Pannir's appeal and dismissed the appeal on 9 February 2018.
Pannir submitted a clemency petition, stating that he regretted his actions, and he hoped that he could live so that he could devote himself to Christianity and to teach others to not follow in his footsteps.
On 17 May 2019, President Halimah Yacob turned down Pannir's appeal for clemency on the advice of the Cabinet.
Stay of execution After the clemency appeal was declined, an execution notice was issued to Pannir's family on 17 May 2019, informing them that Pannir would be hanged on 24 May 2019. Pannir applied to delay his execution as he wanted to challenge the clemency outcome. Liew Vui Keong, Malaysia's law minister, wrote to the Singapore authorities to consider commuting Pannir's death sentence to life imprisonment.
On 23 May 2019, a day before he was due to hang, the Court of Appeal granted Pannir a stay of execution. Two Malaysian lawyers, Too Xing Ji and Lee Ji En, took on his case. When granting the stay of execution, the Court of Appeal noted that Pannir was told of the rejection for clemency and his execution date just one week in advance, not leaving him time to obtain legal advice on what options he had.
Pannir's second appeal When his appeal was heard, Pannir's lawyers argued that he should be given the certificate of substantive assistance by the Attorney General of Singapore, as he had given information about his alleged boss Zamri Mohd Tahir, who was arrested on 11 October 2014 (a month later than Pannir). He also argued that it was improper that he had been informed of his clemency rejection via letter on the same day he was issued his execution notice.
The overall arguments indicated that it was unconstitutional to send Pannir to the gallows and it would have been a breach of his rights to life.
However, the prosecution argued that the application by Pannir was unmeritorious, as it was clear from the evidence that, prior to 7 May 2019, the Cabinet had advised the President that the law should be allowed to take its course. The post-dated letters should not be sufficient to challenge the decision to not grant clemency to Pannir. Prosecutor Francis Ng noted that the use of such letters was not a legal requirement but issued as a matter of administration to notify interested persons of the outcome of the clemency process. Besides, Pannir only identified Zamri long after he was arrested, and in prosecuting Zamri, the prosecution did not have the assistance of the information from Pannir to allow them to successfully convict Zamri and send him to death row.
On 12 February 2020, Pannir's appeal was dismissed by judge See Kee Oon of the High Court. Pannir stated he would appeal against the appeal's dismissal to the Court of Appeal, but on 26 November 2021, Pannir's appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal of Singapore.
After the 2021 appeal verdict hearing, Pannir's lawyer Too Xing Ji told reporters that Pannir currently had not given any instructions on whether he will issue any more legal applications in his case. The lawyer reportedly shed tears over the verdict in Pannir's appeal. Pannir's family were also saddened at the verdict, but Pannir remained positive despite the outcome.
Subsequent developments Responses from Malaysia In light of Pannir Selvam Pranthaman's scheduled execution and its subsequent postponement, there were increasing concerns that Singapore was giving unfair treatment to Malaysians arrested and sentenced to death row and execution for drug offences, as there were rising numbers of Malaysians among the drug traffickers executed in recent years. In response to these concerns, Singapore's law minister K Shanmugam argued that there is no inequality in treating foreigners and locals under the law for drug trafficking. He said the majority of Singaporeans favour the death penalty and it would be good for both sides if drug traffickers were caught by Malaysian authorities, as they could be dealt with according to Malaysia's laws (which also legalises execution for drug trafficking) and not have to worry about Singapore's capital punishment. Shanmugam emphasised that there should be no special treatment to Malaysian death row prisoners as it would undermine the integrity of Singapore's law.
In July 2019, letters allegedly written by Pannir circulated on the internet. The Singapore Prison Service rejected their authenticity and claimed that Pannir had earlier stated he did not write them, and stated that these letters were made up to orchestrate a campaign to further pressurise Singapore to spare Pannir's life. This was not accepted by N. Surendran, a Malaysian human rights lawyer who represented Pannir's family. The Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) also denied another allegation that they sent Surendran a threatening letter in relation to Pannir's case.
Poetry, songs and movie During the time he was on death row, Pannir began to pen poems and song lyrics. The lyrics to two songs were used by some Malaysian musicians to compose songs. Pannir's first song "Arah Tuju", which was sung by Malaysian rapper Santesh Kumar and released in April 2021, highlighted the plight of death row inmates and called for forgiveness and mercy. The second song "Bukan Sekadar Hikayat", which was composed and sung by Malaysian rapper Samson Thomas (stage name Saint TFC) before its release in September 2021, was a tribute to Pannir's home country Malaysia and also to those who fought and made sacrifices for Malaysia over these past decades. The singers of both songs have expressed in the Malaysian news that they felt emotional about Pannir's lyrics which detailed his own emotions and they also came to view the issue of the death penalty from different perspectives. A third song penned by Pannir, titled "Di Sebalik Pintu Besi", was released in July 2022, with hip-hop artist Kidd Santhe and veteran singer Dj Dave collaborating to produce it. Pannir also contributed a poem to celebrate International Women's Day in March 2022.
In 2022, under the Freedom Film Festival a movie about Pannir’s case called Peluang Kedua (Second Chance) was released.
Pannir also wrote about his life on death row at Changi Prison and the impact it has on all the convicts, including him, who were awaiting their executions. On 27 April 2022, when drug trafficker Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was hanged at dawn, Pannir penned a poem titled Death Row Literature and dedicated it to Nagaenthran and mourned his death.
On 27 September 2025, Death Row Literature: A Collection of Poems by Pannir Selvam, was launched at an event at Gerakbudaya, Petaling Jaya.
Case impact on Pannir's family Since 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore, Pannir's family were unable to travel to Singapore to visit him while Pannir was on death row. While they acknowledged that Pannir was truly guilty and should be punished, Pannir's family also continued their search for new evidence, some of which they later provided to the authorities, to assist in Pannir's case in order to reopen his case and also rake up any possibilities for him to be spared the gallows and instead receive life imprisonment. Pannir also expressed to his sister that he wished that he can die in Malaysia, the country where he was born and grew up in and loved, and he did not want to face death in Singapore.