Malaysian authorities "secretly" executed three inmates convicted for murders Friday. According to the representing attorney for the three inmates, their families were only notified two days before their execution.
Attorney Palaya Rengaiah, the lawyer for Gunasegar Pitchaymuthu, 35, Ramesh Jayakumar, 34, and his brother Sasivarnam Jayakumar, 37, said the three men were told on Thursday, that they will be executed the next day, the Guardian reported. "The execution was done between 4:30 and 5:30 this morning. They were hanged to death," Rengaiah said.
Two days priors to their execution, the families were notified via letter, informing them to make their final visit as well as to prepare for funerals. The three inmates were sentenced to be hanged to death by the Malaysian Supreme court for killing a 25 year old man in a playground back in the year 2005.
Despite that they were found guilty, the three insist their innocence, claiming they were defending themselves from the attack of the group, which include the victim. The executions of the three inmates were considered by the rights activist groups as "shocking and disturbing", despite their "calls for clemency", according to Daily Mail.
Malaysian and international organisations including the UN's human rights body filed an appeal to halt the looming execution of Pitchaymuthu last week. However, the Amnesty International said, the three were already hanged on Friday. The said execution was not yet confirmed by the AFP, as information on scheduled hangings are not made public before, or sometimes after, they are carried out.
According to Amnesty, this practice was "secretive" and contrary to international standards on the use of the death penalty. Nancy Shukri , the minister in the Prime Minister's Department said on Monday, she is working on her proposal to be granted, which "amend the Penal Code and abolish the mandatory death sentence early as next March," the Malay Mail Online cited.
Amnesty International has condemned what it called a "last-minute" execution of the men accused of murder, an offence that carries a mandatory death sentence. According to Death Penalty Worldwide, the Malaysian prison's department said there were currently more than 1,000 inmates awaiting execution, although none had been killed since 2013.
