Lim Tean seeks to postpone trial to find new lawyer, says he had 'hardly any time' due to Presidential Election

SINGAPORE — Lawyer and opposition party leader Lim Tean, who was on trial for charges of acting as a lawyer when he was unauthorised, began the first day of the trial by dismissing his defence counsel over "fundamental differences", a court heard on Tuesday (Aug 29).

In what the prosecution called a "delay tactic", Lim then sought to adjourn the trial further in order to seek a new lawyer to represent him, as well as to give him time to go through the evidence from the prosecution because he had been busy with the 2023 Presidential Election.

He was referring to his involvement in the election campaign of former NTUC Income chief Tan Kin Lian. Lim is Mr Tan's seconder on his team.

The 58-year-old, who founded the party Peoples Voice, claimed trial for three charges of acting as a lawyer without a valid practising certificate under the Legal Profession Act. 

Two other charges, which Lim had been found guilty for by a disciplinary tribunal, were for misappropriating S$30,000 and S$5,500 from AXA Insurance while he was a lawyer at Carson Law Chambers. Another two charges were for refusing to cooperate with a police officer and stalking a former employee.

Lim appeared in court with his defence counsel Sankar Kailasa Thevar Saminathan from Sterling Law Corporation initially, but discharged his lawyer shortly after court proceedings began.

"It has become apparent that we have fundamental differences in how to handle my defence," Lim said, "I therefore discharge him and would like to get a new counsel."

Seeking more time from the court to do so, he went on to state that he also needed the extra time to go through the evidence bundle that the prosecution served him last week.

"The service of the bundle came at an inopportune time and I have been very involved for the campaign of one of the presidential candidates, which has hardly left me any time for the trial," he continued.

In response, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Edwin Soh said that for cases such as Lim's, no timeline or deadline was required for the prosecution to serve the bundle. 

DPP Soh also stated that Lim would have already been well aware of the trial date when it was set at a pre-trial conference hearing on March 24.

"The accused would have been well aware of this trial date and yet what he chooses to do in his free time, it's his prerogative, but he was aware of the timeline," DPP Soh added.

The prosecution also said that Lim's last-minute change of counsel was "merely a delay tactic", arguing that this was apparent since Lim did so on the day his trial began.

DPP Soh went on to urge the court to deny Lim's request and proceed with the trial, as Lim is an experienced lawyer who could represent himself.

'EXERCISING CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT'

Disagreeing with the prosecution, Lim told the court that he wanted to exercise his "constitutional right" to have representation by way of counsel.

"I have never taken that position in my 33 years as a lawyer that a person should go to court representing himself," he added.

Lim also said that despite being aware of the trial dates, nobody could have foreseen him being placed into the path of a presidential campaign or that he would be a seconder to his preferred candidate.

He assured the court that his decision to discharge his counsel was also not some delay tactic because it was something that came about during preparation, and he was not comfortable with Mr Sankar continuing as his counsel.

Considering both sides of the argument, Senior District Judge Ong Hian Sun agreed with Lim's request to seek a new counsel and gave him a day to do so.

The judge told Lim that if he does not engage a new defence counsel by tomorrow, he would have to be prepared to go through the trial himself.

The trial is set to continue on Wednesday.