It is Jumai Kho's birthday on Friday. It is also the day her brother is set to be executed in Singapore.
Jumai and her mother Lenduk Baling have travelled to Singapore from Miri in Malaysia to make a plea for mercy to President Tony Tan in a last bid attempt to save their brother and son, Jabing Kho.
Their trip comes just days after they received a letter from Singapore's Prison Service saying Jabing was going to be executed on May 20 at dawn at Changi jail.
"When I got the letter I cried. I was crying in my heart and I was thinking what can I do to save my brother," Jumai told AAP.
Her brother, 31, was convicted of murder in 2010 after he killed Cao Ruyin with a tree branch during the course of a robbery in 2008.
Since his conviction the families have been through several legal ups and downs. After being initially sentenced to death, the High Court in 2013 found the death penalty was not appropriate on a number of grounds, saying he was relatively young at the time and that his choice of weapon was "opportunistic" and not part of a pre-arranged plan.
But then the prosecution appealed and he was sent back to death row last year.
Last Thursday at 2pm Jumai received a letter from Singapore Prison Service.
"The letter just informed me that my brother was going to be executed on May 20 at dawn."
His death by long drop hanging is scheduled on the same day of her birthday.
Earlier this week numerous organisations, including Amnesty International and Reprieve Australia, signed a joint statement calling for a halt to Jabing's execution in order to allow him to file a fresh clemency appeal seeking to commute his sentence to life imprisonment.
They had been under the impression authorities were going to allow Jabing to file a fresh clemency appeal after last year's was dismissed.
Activists now fear that the president usually takes three months before any decision regarding clemency is announced, meaning there will be insufficient time to consider a fresh plea.
"I hope that the president can give my brother a second chance. He is the only one with the power to do that," Jumai told AAP.
According to statistics provided by Singapore's Prison Service to the organisation We Believe in Second Chances, the service executed four people last year.
Share
