Singapore must guard against foreign interference that tries to weaken trust, confidence in criminal justice system: MHA

SINGAPORE: Minister of State for Home Affairs Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim on Wednesday (Mar 9) warned against foreign interference by other countries and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that tries to weaken Singaporeans’ trust and confidence in the criminal justice system.

He was responding to a parliamentary question by Mr Murali Pillai (PAP-Bukit Batok) about a court application filed last August by 17 death row prisoners.

The application sought declarations that the Attorney-General had acted “arbitrarily”, discriminated against them as “persons of Malay ethnicity” and “exceeded his powers and acted unlawfully”, Dr Faishal said. 

The High Court dismissed their application in December, finding that the allegations were “baseless” and that the application was an “abuse of court process”. The prisoners did not appeal the dismissal of their application. 

The prisoners were represented by the lawyer, M Ravi. The Attorney-General’s Chambers had said at the time that it would be seeking personal costs against Mr Cheng Kim Kuan, the lawyer in charge of the case on record, and Mr Ravi, who practises at Mr Cheng’s firm. 

“​​The death penalty remains relevant and important in our criminal justice system, as a deterrent against serious crimes, and to keep Singaporeans and Singapore safe and secure. The majority of Singaporeans support the use of the death penalty for serious crimes,” said Dr Faishal.  

“While other countries and NGOs may not share the same view as us, this is an issue for Singaporeans to decide.

"In the incident I referred to, we see them trying to mobilise public opinions, using baseless accusations to play up the issue of race, to weaken Singaporeans’ trust and confidence in our criminal justice system. We must be on our guard against such foreign interference.”

"UNSEEMLY SERIES OF EVENTS"

When the application was filed, the plaintiffs’ lawyer posted on social media and credited an "English barrister" for his assistance with the application, said Dr Faishal. 

This English barrister appears to be associated with a London-based NGO, he noted. 

Before the case was heard in court, details of the plaintiffs’ affidavit were published online on a Malaysian news portal even before it was adduced as evidence in court, said the Minister of State. 

This was a breach of Supreme Court practice directions, he added. 

The plaintiffs’ counsel had also furnished the cause papers, including the affidavit, to a group of lawyers from Lawyers for Liberty, a Malaysian human rights NGO, said Dr Faishal. 

“The affidavit made completely false, but sensational allegations, designed to grab attention. In the normal course, if the matter had gone on, the allegations would have been shown to be false. But they were published before that,” he added. 

“The whole unseemly series of events; putting up false allegations on affidavit and then leaking it overseas, seems to have been an attempt to weaken public trust in the criminal justice system, stir feelings in our multi-racial society by using foreigners.” 

This is “not the only time” Lawyers for Liberty has tried to intervene in Singapore’s criminal justice process, said Dr Faishal. 

In February, two other people awaiting capital punishment applied for leave to review their concluded appeals to set aside their death sentences. 

Lawyers for Liberty “attempted to participate” as one of the applicants, despite not being a party to earlier appeals, he noted. The court dismissed this attempt as well. 

“We need to build a broader awareness amongst Singaporeans to such foreign interference,” said Dr Faishal.