Friday, June 14, 2013

Singapore threatens filmmaker with contempt of court charge

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the latest case of the very intolerant (or should we say very nervous) Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore city state silencing criticism and free speech; it's state controlled newspaper Straits Times of June 14, 2013 has the story "Warning for contempt of court issued against indie filmmaker Lynn Yee" See http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/warning-contempt-court-issued-against-indie-filmmaker-lynn-lee-2013061

Lynn Yee had posted 2 videos she made of Chinese national foreign bus drivers in Singapore who were recently arrested for going on strike. They have all since pleaded guilty and deported as is the usual practice of this island which does not respect any human rights.

In the videos according to the report "The two bus drivers (while in custody) had alleged in the videos that they were assaulted by police officers for the purpose of extracting confessions."

According to the report 

"The AGC (Attorney General of Singapore) in a statement said that Ms Lee was aware, at the time of publication, that criminal proceedings against He and Liu were ongoing, and thus her conduct had created "a real risk of prejudice" to the proceedings through sub judice.

This may lead to parties connected with the trial "would be improperly influenced" by the publication, in their making of findings of fact, the AGC said. It added: "These are matters that should be determined at a trial and not by publications that are made outside the court."

In other words, what the Attorney General is saying is this. Just because there is an ongoing investigation, no one should report anything about the case including making any videos because if they did, every one who is investigating the case and judging it would all be prejudiced and damage the proceedings.

You can see how nonsensical this argument is. There is no such rule of sub judice whatsoever. This is another case of the Kangaroo courts and their corrupt legal system making up rules as they go along in order to silence any criticism.

The sub judice rule only applies in cases where there are jury trials where there is an imminent danger that jurymen who are laymen, may likely be prejudiced by massive misinformation put out by the parties while the case is still in progress. This restriction is understandable in certain cases where there is a real likelihood of prejudice to the prosecution of the case. In any case it is sparingly used.

In Singapore on the other hand, you don't have juries (laymen), only judges. So it is impossible for any lay jury to be influenced by the videos one way or the other. And judges and government officials are supposed to be robust enough to be able to decide the matter independently despite any information on the Internet.

This is simply not a case to apply the sub judice rule since it simply has no application to this case. Once again Singapore law is conveniently abused for the single purpose, not only to make Singaporeans look as if they were just ignorant fools with no knowledge at all, but principally to silence even the slightest dissent and to intimidate every single pathetic individual that lives in that island that he should simply accept whatever Lee Kuan Yew and his son throws at them without any protest at all!

Another perfect example of Singapore’s Kangaroo legal system in action.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's Lynn Lee not, Yee.

Lynn Lee gives an account of the police investigation at:
http://workfairsingapore.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/lynn-lee-in-which-lim-makes-me-kopi-at-the-internal-affairs-office/

The nincompoops working at the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) of Singapore do not even understand the meaning of subjudice.

The AGC should be convicted of subjudice for abusing laws to subdue the freedom of speech and the freedom of press. Those fake judges obviously have no respect for the law.

Anonymous said...

The Attorney General's name is

Zhuāng Hóngxiáng (Chong Horng Siong)




Anonymous said...

Minister for National Development, Khaw Boon Wan, criticized young Singaporeans at the World Cities Summit Mayors
“Some of our youths are losing optimism, as they remain unemployed or under-employed for months or years."
---------------

So. Mr Minister,
What are you doing to help our unemployed or under-employed youths?

These highly paid idiots just don't get it, do they. Their primary job is to take care of citizens, not FTs.
They problem is that they are paid on GDP growth, which means they will do anything to increase GDP, even at the expense of joblessness for S'poreans.



http://therealsingapore.com/content/khaw-criticizes-young-singaporeans-being-too-suspicious




Linda Kosmanto said...

LKY and his mates and family simply make up the law and its application as they go along. Flexible, lah.

Anonymous said...

LKY's sad and pathetic daughter tries to redeem his image.

http://www.tremeritus.com/2013/06/17/lee-wei-ling-my-fathers-health-is-deteriorating/

But no one is buying this bullshit. The dictator will soon be gone, and his legacy will be thrown in the garbage.

The ooze of hatred is pouring out of the pores of S'porean, especially the young.


This is what LKY did:
Chia Thye Poh longest held political detainee, beating Nelson Mandela record and second longest Dr Lim Hock Siew

During the 2nd WW, he was a collaborator and worked for the Imperial Japanese Army, who were busy killing people, especially the Chinese in Malaya.

Anonymous said...

Most children love their parents even if the latter are dictators with blood in their hands. That said Con U is a dictator and his wife was comrade in arms as in Francis Seow book.
Starting with Jap War, many Chinese men killed, women raped and killed and so were children in singapore and Malaysia. This dying dictator at that time was alive because he served the Jap Army, enemy of Singapore then.
In Malaysia, he provoked the UMNO and stirred the different races. Racial war broke out. Malaysia was forced to cut off Singapore to preserve law and order in WEst Malaysia.
Singapore moved on alone and this Dictator ruled Singapore like the royal family. Free Press ceased, law society turned to a lamb, professional bodies told to concentrate on their specialities and not to be involved in politics.Unions bought over by PAP and students entering poly and Universities then and only a decade ago, had to apply for Suitability Certificate, screened by ISD whether students or their families have any political links with opposition parties. Tan Wah Piow framed by this Dictator and no apology yet.
All this and more while the dictator daughter talk of cake making when hundreds of innocent families lost their loved ones by detention in prison without trial on PAP trumped charges. LKY is a politician and not a statesman like His peers, Nehru or even
Seokarno . His political actions should be laid to rest next the war criminals of the Japanese Army, Marcos, and modern day dictators like Mugage and deceased
Pres of N Korea. Elevating LKY is a travesty of justice to millions in Singapore whose families had been ruined by PAP FamiLEE and their millionaire ministers