UK author vows to fight Singapore contempt charge

[FlipSide]

UK author vows to fight Singapore contempt charge
AP
By ALEX KENNEDY,Associated Press Writer - Friday, July 30

SINGAPORE – A British author vowed Friday to fight charges in Singapore related to his book on the city-state's death penalty policy, even if it lands him in jail.

Alan Shadrake, 75, said he rejected a plea bargain from the attorney general's office to drop a contempt of court charge in exchange for an apology for statements about Singapore's judicial system in his book, "Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock."

"They can put me in jail, I don't care," Shadrake said in an interview before a preliminary hearing. "They will not shut me up."

Shadrake was arrested July 18 and freed on bail two days later in connection with a criminal defamation investigation that is still ongoing. The attorney general also charged Shadrake with contempt of court, which, like criminal defamation, carries a possible punishment of jail, a fine or both.

The attorney-general's office alleges statements in the book impugn the impartiality, integrity and independence of the judiciary.

"The allegations and imputations in the book are calculated to undermine the authority of the Singapore courts and public confidence in the administration of justice," the attorney general's office said in court documents.

"By reason of bringing to existence, publication and distribution of the book which scandalized the Singapore judiciary, the respondent has committed contempt of court."

Prosecutor David Chong said in court Friday that the attorney general's office would accept an "unqualified apology" from Shadrake given the author's ailing health. Shadrake said he takes daily medication for heart disease.

Chong also warned journalists against publishing any "contemptuous material" related to the case.

Judge Quentin Loh granted Shadrake's request for a two-week adjournment to prepare his case.

Singapore's leaders have sued journalists and political opponents several times in past years for defamation. The government says restrictions on speech and assembly are necessary to preserve economic prosperity and racial and religious harmony in this multiethnic city-state of 5 million people. It says any statement that damages the reputations of its leaders will hinder their ability to rule effectively.

Human rights groups say Singapore uses criminal defamation laws to silence critics.

"Free speech is an endangered species in Singapore," Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "It's sadly predictable that the government did not hesitate to threaten prosecution, fines, and imprisonment against an author whose views run contrary to its own."

The media authority said last week that it had not banned the sale of the book in Singapore.

"I would never apologize and I would never say sorry," Shadrake told reporters as he left court Friday. "I didn't do this to grovel to them like Singaporeans mostly have to do to lead a normal life."

Singapore applies capital punishment by hanging for offenses such as murder, drug trafficking and unlawful use of a firearm.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20100729/twl-as-singapore-british-author-0c152ae.html

 

[Frankiestine]

Screw this white shit, people who defends the right of scums like drug traffickers and murderers to live, deserves to be hung themselves.

 

[Baroko]

Screw this white shit, people who defends the right of scums like drug traffickers and murderers to live, deserves to be hung themselves.

These people are entitled to their opinion. They do not need to live by our draconian rules. They have freedom of speech and free protests in their countries which do not have the ISA to put political dissenters away. They only lock up terrorists who are the real threat to their country.

 

[Areopagus]

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/07/alan-shadrake’s-crime/


Alan Shadrake’s crime?
Posted by theonlinecitizen on July 19, 2010 61 Comments

Choo Zheng Xi -

Alan Shadrake’s book “Once a Jolly Hangman” makes for uncomfortable reading. One case in particular might have made those in power uncomfortable enough to arrest Mr Shadrake on the rarely used draconian charge of criminal defamation.

A defamation action is usually instituted in civil proceedings by a person or an institution that believes its reputation has been harmed by a statement of the defendant. Even Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew used a civil defamation action in pursuing his detractors in the international press and local opposition.

Criminal defamation brings the resources of the State to bear in what is essentially a question of protecting personal reputations.

In 2009, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) intervened to discontinue proceedings in a criminal defamation action on the grounds that “the law of criminal defamation is not to be resorted to lightly”. The AGC noted that in a civil action, the possibility that costs may be awarded against an unsuccessful plaintiff acts as a natural barrier to frivolous action. There is no such safeguard in criminal defamation.

The United Kingdom abolished criminal defamation in July 2009.

So what agitated the authorities enough to arrest Alan Shadrake for criminal defamation, amongst other charges?

The Vignes Mourthi case?

One possible contender is his characterization of the trial and execution of Vignes Mourthi as “arguably one of the most appalling miscarriages of justice in Singapore’s history”.

Vignes Mourthi was arrested on 20 September 2001 and convicted of trafficking 27.65 grams of heroin.

Mourthi’s conviction rested largely on the strength of evidence of the officer who arrested him, Sgt S Rajkumar, a senior officer of the Central Narcotics Bureau. Sgt Rajkumar was a key witness in the prosecution’s case, and Mourthi’s defense was that an incriminating piece of evidence collected by Rajkumar had been added at a much later date.

Shadrake reveals that just three days after Mourthi’s arrest, on 23 September 2001, Sgt. Rajkumar was himself arrested for allegedly handcuffing, raping and sodomizing a young woman and for subsequently bribing her to keep silent.

In the judgment convicting Rajkumar of bribery, Judge Sia Ai Kor described his actions as “so obviously corrupt by the ordinary and objective standard that he must know his conduct is corrupt”.

Shadrake points out how the ongoing case against Rajkumar was never revealed to Mourthi’s defense lawyer, and surmises that the prosecutor and other parties must have known about Rajkumar’s case but chose to keep silent.

In his book, Shadrake characterizes Mourthi’s case as groundbreaking enough to resemble the “catastrophic failures of the justice system in Britain” that contributed to the death penalty being abolished there.

If Shadrake is right, then the authorities could very well be stepping up to the criminal defamation plate to contest his version of events.

 

[wuqi256]

Actually there may be innocent folks who were tried as drug traffickers and hanged in many countries including our own especially when we presume that the suspect is always presumed to be guilty rather than the other way round.

Someone basically said this in court, to the person in the dock,
"Yes If i think a person is guilty, he would be hanged no matter the circumstances or evidence"

 

[darthboy]

The Caucasian countries are not free. Even the USA, so-called land of the free, is not really free.

From Bouvier 1856, an American law dictionary.

BILL OF RIGHTS.
English law. A statute passed in the reign of William and Mary, so called, because it declared the true rights of British subjects.

This British Alan Shadrake needs to rethink his strategy.

 

[Frankiestine]

These people are entitled to their opinion. They do not need to live by our draconian rules. They have freedom of speech and free protests in their countries which do not have the ISA to put political dissenters away. They only lock up terrorists who are the real threat to their country.

While I don't agree with the gov handling of its political rivals where freedom of speech is concerned. I feel those who stand up for such scums of society rights to live should see for themselves the very harm these low lives has brought on the vulnerable.

 

[Cestbon]

"Free speech is an endangered species in Singapore," Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "It's sadly predictable that the government did not hesitate to threaten prosecution, fines, and imprisonment against an author whose views run contrary to its own."

PAP sure angry with the statement.
Always self praise 1st world but. But no freedom speech. Or even peacefully gathering to protess by few people.

 

[drifter]

Screw this white shit, people who defends the right of scums like drug traffickers and murderers to live, deserves to be hung themselves.

nobody have the right to take another person's life ...you can punish him by giving him life sentence . if capital punishment is effective , there would be no murderers or drug traffickers in singapore !!!

 

[drifter]

While I don't agree with the gov handling of its political rivals where freedom of speech is concerned. I feel those who stand up for such scums of society rights to live should see for themselves the very harm these low lives has brought on the vulnerable.

dont agree with capital punishment does not mean supporting those people who make mistakes.

 

[Ramseth]

Screw this white shit, people who defends the right of scums like drug traffickers and murderers to live, deserves to be hung themselves.

I don't think he's condoning or defending drug trafficking. His issue is about the penalty, i.e. death penalty. Personally, I have no quarrel with sentencing murderers and terrorists to death. However, possessing a few ounces of drugs being deemed trafficking and therefore mandatory death penalty, that somehow doesn't seem just to me.

 

[Frankiestine]

But the death penalty has serves it purpose in deterring other would be drug traffickers from peddling their filth on our streets.

 

[cheekenpie]

The mandatory nature of it should be the ultimate deterrence. Everytime you arrive on plane or ferry or train they will announce and warn you so no excuse le.

 

[drifter]

The mandatory nature of it should be the ultimate deterrence. Everytime you arrive on plane or ferry or train they will announce and warn you so no excuse le.

even they announce on the plane , ferry or train they are still drugs traffickers....what does it mean ? its mean that capital punishment does not work . those mother fuckers are not scare .

 

[drifter]

But the death penalty has serves it purpose in deterring other would be drug traffickers from peddling their filth on our streets.

you mean singapore streets now are drugs free ?

 

[drifter]

I don't think he's condoning or defending drug trafficking. His issue is about the penalty, i.e. death penalty. Personally, I have no quarrel with sentencing murderers and terrorists to death. However, possessing a few ounces of drugs being deemed trafficking and therefore mandatory death penalty, that somehow doesn't seem just to me.

bro , im glad that you can weight the crime ...

 

[tua lam pah]

nobody has the right to another person's life, if the murdered's family forgive him, just lock him up for good, even the most hardened criminal will mellow over time....

does killing the drug mule punish the real drug lord behind?
is spore drug free now?
over the years, in some instances i am sure some innocent person has been sentenced to death wrongly do we have a right to end a life? thats the question

 

[Ramseth]

Everybody knows the above statement is true...why is PAP so upset with it?

PAP is upset with it because it's not false.

 

[Frankiestine]

you mean singapore streets now are drugs free ?

Not 100% but not as rampant as it was in the 70s.

 

[drifter]

Not 100% but not as rampant as it was in the 70s.

do you know that the numbers of drug addict arrested by CNB actucally increase every year ? death penalty as deterrence is the easy way out but it is not effective . japan does not have death penalty for drugs related offences yet Drug abuse prevalence rate is much more lower then singapore .