Recently, the death sentences imposed on convicted drug traffickers have made the news lately, as lawyer M. Ravi fights to give them more time.
On Tuesday (22 Sep), Mr Ravi managed to get drug trafficker Syed Suhail bin Syed Zin a stay of execution till the next court hearing on 7 Oct.
He was back at work the next day, however, representing another death-row inmate, Moad Fadzir bin Mustaffa, 41.
Source
To his relief, Mr Ravi said in a Facebook post on Wednesday (23 Sep) that President Halimah Yacob would grant Fadzir a respite order on his execution.
On 25 Nov 2019, Fadzir’s conviction and death sentence was affirmed by the Court Of Appeal.
He was charged with drug trafficking after being found in possession of 36.93g of diamorphine, or heroin, on 12 Apr 2016.
Subsequently, his mother received a letter no mother would want to receive — it was from Changi Prison, informing her of the impending death of her son by execution on Thursday (24 Sep).
It also advised her to make funeral arrangements for him.
According to Mr Ravi in a Facebook post on 18 Sep, Fadzir’s mother then approached him tearfully, asking him to help save her son.
He decided to represent Fadzir pro bono, even though he was currently also preoccupied with Suhail’s case at the same time.
Happily, a day before Fadzir’s scheduled execution, Mr Ravi said he was informed at a case management conference that Fadzir will be getting a respite order on the warrant of execution.
Mr Ravi was obviously cheered by this development, as he said he could see Fadzir’s mother this evening “with a sense of relief”.
He’s also glad that he wouldn’t have to have to apply for a stay of execution.
Nevertheless, he and his team was ready to do so, having filed all the relevant court papers the night before, he added.
However, he said this news is just the beginning of the fight to save Fadzir from “another miscarriage of justice”.
The day before, Mr Ravi had just attended an “intense” court hearing for Suhail.
This was after an emergency Judicial Review application was filed on Thursday (17 Sep), to which the High Court ordered an interim stay of Suhail’s death sentence.
That was also a day before Suhail was set to be executed on 18 Sep.
The 44-year-old was sentenced to death in 2016 for drug trafficking as he was found with close to 40g of heroin.
We’re grateful that Fadzir’s and Suhail’s families will get to have more time with them.
No matter what your views are on the death penalty, you’d agree that death is irreverisible.
Thus, before we carry out a death sentence, we should be sure that everything has been done correctly and they’re no loose ends.
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Featured image adapted from Facebook and Facebook.
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