KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian rights lawyer N. Surendran has called on the Singaporean government to reverse the execution order for a Sarawakian man convicted of murder in the Republic in 2015.

Micheal Anak Garing, 28, is due to be executed in Singapore’s Changi Prison on Friday (March 22).

Mr Surendran, who is adviser to Lawyers for Liberty, said that while Micheal should be punished for his offence, he should be given a chance at rehabilitation and that by killing him, the state was committing an “even greater wrong”.

He called on President Halimah Yacob to exercise clemency and commute Micheal’s sentence to life imprisonment.

“It is not too late to do so. We further urge the government of Singapore to impose a moratorium on all executions and work towards abolition of the death penalty,” he said.

Mr Surendran also slammed the Singaporean authorities for giving Michael’s family such short notice of his execution.

“Micheal’s family, who are from Kapit in Sarawak, were only given eight days’ notice of the imminent execution. They were asked by letter to make the ‘necessary funeral arrangements’,” he said.

“This extremely short notice is disturbing and a cause for concern. It gives the family scant time to spend with Micheal in his final days and to make preparations.”

Micheal was part of a gang of four Sarawak natives who carried out four violent robberies from the late night of May 29, 2010 to the early hours of the next day in Kallang.

Their first two victims were construction worker Sandeep Singh, 24, and full-time national serviceman Ang Jun Heng, 19. They were kicked, punched and slashed with a parang.

A third victim, Indian national Egan Karuppaiah, 43, had both arms almost hacked to the bone.

Their final victim was Shanmuganathan Dillidurai, 41, who was knocked off his bicycle along Kallang Road. He was slashed repeatedly and died after sustaining a fractured skull and a severed jugular vein, among other serious injuries.

Following a trial, Micheal was sentenced to death, as the court found that he had wielded the parang in the fatal attack, as well as in the earlier robberies. THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT