<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Nair denies insulting judge
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>He says insults are not insults if they are true </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Kor Kian Beng
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->COMMENTS that are insulting towards someone, but which are true, should not be deemed to be insulting, former Singaporean lawyer Gopalan Nair argued at his trial yesterday.
This was one of the several reasons that Nair, 58, who is charged with insulting High Court judge Belinda Ang, gave in his submission to the court after the prosecution closed its case against him.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>About the case
GOPALAN Nair is charged with insulting Justice Belinda Ang in a posting on his blog on May 29, by accusing her of 'prostituting herself' to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew at a court hearing which she presided over.
The three-day hearing in May, which Nair attended, was to assess damages in a defamation suit that the two Singapore leaders won against the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), party chief Chee Soon Juan and his sister Chee Siok Chin.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The prosecution had, since the trial began on Monday, presented evidence in an attempt to show Nair had a history of making insulting remarks about the judge in e-mail messages and previous blog posts.
Justice Kan Ting Chiu will give his decision on whether to call for Nair's defence when the trial resumes on Monday.
In his submission yesterday, Nair referred to the dictionary.com online website and said that the definition of an insult is to treat or to speak insolently or with contemptuous rudeness to someone.
But an insult must also be untrue, he added.
Thus, he denied having insulted Justice Ang, saying: 'If it's true, it's not an insult.'
In his blog posting of May 29, he wrote, after observing a case over which Justice Ang had presided, that she 'was throughout prostituting herself during the entire proceedings, by being nothing more than an employee of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders'.
Referring to the blog post yesterday, Nair said he was not calling the judge a prostitute. Nor did he send her any e-mail or letter inviting her to read the post.
But he added: 'Here, I have to be a gentleman. If my words were rather strong, I apologise to the judge. But I'm not admitting that the words were wrong. They were right, but they were not offered as an insult.'
Nair, now an American citizen, also referred to Article 14 of the Singapore Constitution, which provides for freedom of speech, and said he had the right to put down what he had said in the posting.
'I believe I've made some contribution in raising awareness about some issues, even though I'm in America,' he said.
Yesterday, he continued to cross-examine case investigating officer Abdul Razak Jakaria. Questions focused on an e-mail message sent to Justice Ang's secretary and to Attorney-General Walter Woon on May30 in the evening.
The A-G forwarded the message to the police. Their investigations led to Nair's arrest on May31, and the charge he now faces.
Nair denied sending the e-mail message, although he acknowledged it came from his personal e-mail address.
He again accused Assistant Superintendent Razak of sending the e-mail messages after his arrest, as his belongings - including a notebook containing his e-mail password - were also seized at that time. [email protected]
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>He says insults are not insults if they are true </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Kor Kian Beng
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->COMMENTS that are insulting towards someone, but which are true, should not be deemed to be insulting, former Singaporean lawyer Gopalan Nair argued at his trial yesterday.
This was one of the several reasons that Nair, 58, who is charged with insulting High Court judge Belinda Ang, gave in his submission to the court after the prosecution closed its case against him.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>About the case
GOPALAN Nair is charged with insulting Justice Belinda Ang in a posting on his blog on May 29, by accusing her of 'prostituting herself' to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew at a court hearing which she presided over.
The three-day hearing in May, which Nair attended, was to assess damages in a defamation suit that the two Singapore leaders won against the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), party chief Chee Soon Juan and his sister Chee Siok Chin.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The prosecution had, since the trial began on Monday, presented evidence in an attempt to show Nair had a history of making insulting remarks about the judge in e-mail messages and previous blog posts.
Justice Kan Ting Chiu will give his decision on whether to call for Nair's defence when the trial resumes on Monday.
In his submission yesterday, Nair referred to the dictionary.com online website and said that the definition of an insult is to treat or to speak insolently or with contemptuous rudeness to someone.
But an insult must also be untrue, he added.
Thus, he denied having insulted Justice Ang, saying: 'If it's true, it's not an insult.'
In his blog posting of May 29, he wrote, after observing a case over which Justice Ang had presided, that she 'was throughout prostituting herself during the entire proceedings, by being nothing more than an employee of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders'.
Referring to the blog post yesterday, Nair said he was not calling the judge a prostitute. Nor did he send her any e-mail or letter inviting her to read the post.
But he added: 'Here, I have to be a gentleman. If my words were rather strong, I apologise to the judge. But I'm not admitting that the words were wrong. They were right, but they were not offered as an insult.'
Nair, now an American citizen, also referred to Article 14 of the Singapore Constitution, which provides for freedom of speech, and said he had the right to put down what he had said in the posting.
'I believe I've made some contribution in raising awareness about some issues, even though I'm in America,' he said.
Yesterday, he continued to cross-examine case investigating officer Abdul Razak Jakaria. Questions focused on an e-mail message sent to Justice Ang's secretary and to Attorney-General Walter Woon on May30 in the evening.
The A-G forwarded the message to the police. Their investigations led to Nair's arrest on May31, and the charge he now faces.
Nair denied sending the e-mail message, although he acknowledged it came from his personal e-mail address.
He again accused Assistant Superintendent Razak of sending the e-mail messages after his arrest, as his belongings - including a notebook containing his e-mail password - were also seized at that time. [email protected]
....but the end result would still be the same 
