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ANTI-death penalty advocates in Malaysia have urged the public to petition the Selangor Sultan to pardon a Thai quadriplegic transwoman serving a life sentence for drug trafficking.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that Thanakorn Sinsanoi, 33, who goes by her female name Pau, was imprisoned in 2013 after arriving in Malaysia with 1.3kg of methamphetamine in her luggage.
She had claimed that the package was packed by a friend.
According to the report, Pau’s sentence was commuted from the death penalty to 30 years in 2023 after Malaysia lifted mandatory capital punishment.
However, while in prison, she caught tuberculosis twice and the disease ultimately caused her to be quadriplegic – paralysed from the neck down.
She has to be wheeled on a hospital bed for her court appearances.
Hayat said that despite her lawyer’s plea for leniency due to her health situation, the court ruled that it could not commute the sentence further as 30 years was the minimum the law allowed.
No longer a threat to society
Hayat said that Pau is “no longer a threat to society and deserves a chance to live with appropriate healthcare and support”.
The SCMP report said that Malaysia also does not recognise her transgender identity, landing her in a male prison facility and having to rely on other male prison inmates for her day-to-day care.
Meanwhile, in an Instagram post, Hayat rallied the public to petition the Sultan of Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah for her clemency.
Sultan Sharafuddin is the chairperson of the Selangor Pardons Board.
In the post, Hayat also shared a template for a letter, which they urged members of the public to send to Sultan Sharafuddin, the Pokok Sena prison, elected representatives, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
In its clemency petition, Hayat also said that Pau's doctors in prison have noted that she has no control of her body from the waist down and retained limited control of her hands.
“She also had a colostomy bag attached to her due to her health conditions," it added. - November 15, 2024