MALAYSIANS should not interfere in Singapore’s legal system by opposing the republic’s execution of a Sarawakian this morning, said former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan.

Musa said the execution of Michael Garing at Changi Prison in Singapore was in accordance with the country’s laws which should be respected.

“There are statements made by some of our ministers that they want to save the life of this man and he should not be hanged.

“I think we should respect the law of the country of our neighbours. We shouldn’t get involved with their system of law.

“We also don’t want other countries to get involved with our system, so we have to respect one another,” he said at a press conference during a roundtable discussion on the death penalty in Kuala Lumpur today.

Michael was convicted of murder in 2015 by the Singapore high court, a verdict that was upheld by the appellate court in 2017.

He converted to Islam in prison and chose to go by the Muslim name Muhammad Arif Sufi.

On March 20, his parents, Ensiring Garman and Garing Kanyan, sent a clemency petition to the president of Singapore asking for Michael’s sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.

Michael was 21 when he was involved in a robbery in Kallang Road in May 2010 which led to the death of 41-year-old construction worker, Shanmuganathan Dillidurai.

Three others were severely injured in the incident.

Musa told reporters that in 1986, two Australians were executed in Malaysia for drug trafficking (Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers were the first Westerners executed under Malaysia’s new tougher laws for drug offences).

The orders to arrest the suspect in Malaysia was made by the Australian government then, he said. The suspects had brought drugs in the country and were leaving for Australia when arrested.

Australians then said the country had no death penalty, therefore, they should have been sent back to Australia and face the country’s laws, said Musa.

However, he said the Australian government then respected the right of Malaysia to punish its citizen in accordance with our country’s laws. – March 22, 2019.