International law clearly states that executions may not be carried out pending any appeal or other proceedings relating to pardon or the commuting of a convict’s sentence, the NGO said.

“With the clemency appeal still pending, the brothers were denied of their opportunity to have their case reconsidered and have their clemency applications heard,” executive director Shamini Darshni said in a statement today.

Rames and Suthar were sentenced to death in April 2010 under Section 302 of the Penal Code after they were found guilty of murdering Krishnan Raman on Feb 4, 2006. The brothers, however, maintained their innocence.

During trial, they said they had intervened to stop two other men from attacking and killing the victim.

The executions, which were initially scheduled for Feb 24, were halted at the last hour. They were set again for March 17, but family members were informed only yesterday that the brothers would be hanged at dawn today, Amnesty said.

This was despite a letter yesterday informing them of the execution on March 17 and asking them to visit the two at Kajang Prison for the last time today.

“It is simply cruel that the family of the prisoners were told to prepare for executions this Friday, only to find out with less than 24 hours’ notice that they were given wrong information about the date of the execution,” Shamini said.

She added that the case was “deeply troubling” as the death sentence had been imposed as the mandatory punishment for a conviction based only on circumstantial evidence.

“They should have been granted the opportunity to have their applications heard and the executions should have been halted until the full and fair hearing of this application.”

Shamini called for Malaysia to “stop back-pedalling on human rights” and to abolish the death penalty.

“Malaysia remains among the minority of countries that continue to use this archaic method of sentencing people in a cruel and inhumane manner,” she said.