Singapore expected to brutally torture Indian nationals suspected of rioting.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A civilized country treats even their criminals with civilized decency expected in the 21st Century. Not so with Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew's son's one party police state. I expect these suspected rioters of the December 8th 2013 of Little India Singapore to be brutally tortured.

Singapore does not have the rule of law. A person arrested for a criminal offense is not entitled to a lawyer until, according to them, their investigations are completed. This can last from one to several weeks. What this means is that these Indian citizens who have been arrested for burning police cars and beating up some police officers will be kept incommunicado in their cells while they are interrogated. This obviously means they will be beaten, threatened, intimidated, deprived of sleep for long hours until they confess. Only after their confessions under torture have been obtained will any lawyer be allowed to see them.

In this case, these unfortunate souls are in for a very cruel ride. Lee Kuan Yew's son, the de facto dictator of Singapore has shown a personal interest in this case and vowed to, in his own words "prosecute them to the full extent of the law".

This is one of personal vengeance and low minded vindictiveness. He personally feels that his power base has been shaken by this riot and  with a cowardly sense of insecurity, he thinks by hurting these people badly, he can continue to instill fear and extract obedience from his people. This is the behavior of a coward, not a statesman. He does not realize that leaders are respected for their mercy, not their cruelty.

Of course in a country where it is highly desirable to be appreciated by the dictator himself, every single police officer and prison warden in charge of this case would be going out of their way to torture these men as much as possible, hopefully to be recognized and promoted in their careers.

And the torture that they would be subjected to would be much worse than for instance if they had arrested me. These workers being mostly uneducated simple people from humble origins, without connections are easy game for them to do as they want, since they are less capable or likely to complain. Any suggestion of torture and mistreatment would simply be denied and no one would have been the wiser.

In addition to the beatings and torture they would endure while in detention, if they are charged with rioting, the offense carries the punishment of caning. For those unaccustomed with the brutality of this punishment let me explain. Prison officers will administer as much as 24 strokes of the cane. Each stroke of the cane is administered with full force. From the first stroke to the bare buttocks naked skin, the skin tears and the bottom becomes bloody. And they beat him again and again on the same bloody wound until his backside becomes a bloody mess of blood and flesh. He cries out in pain but cannot escape because his hands and feet are tied to a trestle.

This punishment is illegal under the United Nations Convention as being cruel and unusual punishment. But Singapore simply refuses to comply with international law and conventions governing the treatment of prisoners.

The scars remain for life. There can be no more brutality than this. Only two countries in the world have such barbarity in their laws, Singapore and Malaysia. I fully expect the judge in this case in order to please Lee Kuan Yew's son will order these beatings to the full measure.

I have personal experience of being a prisoner, and a very proud one, in Lee Kuan Yew's son's jail. In 2008 I was arrested and imprisoned for 3 months because I had written a blog criticizing their judge, the disgraced Belinda Ang Saw Ean, who was openly biased against political dissident Chee Soon Juan who was sued by Lee Kuan Yew and his son.

I was kept in the island's cell in the Central Police Station for about 8 days. I suppose because I was a lawyer and liable to kick up a fuss if they assaulted me, they did not. But they subjected me to other forms of torture. I was subjected to the torture of sleep deprivation. Even night almost every 2 hours I was woken up handcuffed and taken for interrogation.

During the interrogation I was repeatedly threatened with Sedition charges which meant being in jail for up to 3 years. I was repeatedly accused of being an agent or a spy of some sort and of having used computer systems to hide my identity and sending Emails to numerous government officials and judges. This went on day after day with the interrogator writing a confession and demanding that I sign it. Had I been ignorant of the law, and not a strong minded person, I am sure I would have confessed to anything they wanted. But because I held tight, they simply could not get me to sign what they want. Furthermore they were afraid to beat me and instead, applied sleep deprivation and extreme cold in their air conditioned interrogation rooms to try to break me.

I will be writing a book about my adventures in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore but that will have to wait for the moment.

Singapore is a pariah state for the lack of rule of law and the way their government officials function. It is like North Korea with a pack mentality. Of course if Kim Jong An is displeased every single minion in the country would do everything to torture and torment the victim. It is no different in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.

I would recommend the Indian government to personally get involved in this case to ensure their nationals are not mistreated.

If the Indian government needs my assistance or if the Indian media wants to know what it is like to be an accused criminal in Singapore island, I would be pleased to assist.

As everyday passes we read that more and more people are being arrested and charged. This is because those already arrested are forced to give names of others through intimidation and torture. Also numerous government spies are circulating in the Little India Singapore area eavesdropping spying for evidence.

I would suggest any Indian anywhere in the island to be vary of what they say and whom they speak to. We should try our best to prevent this torture island police from arresting anymore people. No one should be subjected to this sort of torture, not even the meanest criminal on Earth.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com