source: http://aussgworldpolitics.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/did-goplan-nair-threaten-belinda-ang/
Did Goplan Nair threaten Belinda Ang?
Posted by Charles on June 1, 2008
According to Channel News Asia, the Singapore police has
recently arrested a former Singaporean for sending ‘insulting
statements to a public servant’ to the Attorney General and the
Solicitor General. The allegedly offensive statement has also been
posted on his blog (Channel News Asia, 2008).
A quick search online in Singapore Statutes throw up one
possible offense that the police might prosecute him under - The
Penal Code, Chapter 10 - Contempts of the Lawful Authority of
Public Servants - Section 189, ‘Threat of injury to a public
servant’ which states that:
Whoever holds out any threat of injury to any public servant, or
to any person in whom he believes that public servant to be
interested, for the purpose of inducing that public servant to do
any act, or to forbear or delay to do any act, connected with the
exercise of the public functions of such public servant, shall be
punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years,
or with fine, or with both (Singapore Statutes, n.d.).
In his latest post, ‘Singapore. Judge Belinda Ang’s Kangaroo
Court’, Nair claims that the court has been misappropriated for
political means (Nair 2008). However, any references to the judge,
Belinda Ang, cannot be deemed as threatening to the public servant.
For the purpose of a closer examination, we have reproduced any
references to Belinda Ang which was found in his blog posting:
1. ‘your stooge of a judge, Belinda Ang’;
2. ‘The judge Belinda Ang 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’;
3. ‘right out of the pages of Alice in Wonderland with Belinda Ang
playing the role of the Queen of Hearts before the trial of the
Mouse who stole the Tarts very well indeed’;
4. numerous references to her as the ‘kangaroo judge’;
5. ‘and the judge obediently sustained the objection’;
6. ‘ Of course the judge permitted these insults, since after all
Lee Kuan Yew and his son owned the courts and the judge as
well’;
While it is true that in his posting, he accuses the court and
the judge of political persecution, sometimes using language that
might be deemed as offensive, there was no hint or openly declared
threat to cause any injury to the public servant. This is a clear
distinction that one should keep in mind.
While it is true that he had openly declared his address, name
and laid down a challenge for the Senior Minister to serve him with
a writ of summons, there are still no plausible grounds for the
arrests.
Given that the Singapore law society has recently announced its
intentions to lobby for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
to be incorporated into the law books, it should seek to represent
Mr Nair if the police decides to press ahead with charges. There is
no time to be lost given the authorities have said they will put
him on trial by Monday.
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http://www.agc.gov.sg/
online statues
Now i know defamation can be a criminal case.
if u want bankrupt some body,sue him in civil suit.
if u want him go to jail,sue him under this act.
CHAPTER XXI
DEFAMATION
Defamation.
499. Whoever, by words either spoken or intended
to be read, or by signs, or by visible representations, makes or
publishes any imputation concerning any person, intending to
harm, or knowing or having reason
to believe that such imputation will harm, the reputation of such person, is said, except
in the cases hereinafter excepted, to defame that person.
..............
Punishment for defamation.
500. Whoever defames another shall be punished
with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years, or with
fine, or with both.
2.Why did CSJ
want to cover that background of G Nair?
If u read SDP site http://www.yoursdp.org/,
,u would think Nair just another ordinary blogger.
u may think he just expressed his views IMPLUSIVELY after
attending
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nothing about laws.
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A>Do u know in his
18 months old blog
http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/ (the name is very
combatant),
he posted 318 blogs.My random check find out 99.9999%
are anti--SG(gavaman,Lees,New minister in Law,DPM,),
critizing Workers Party(he was WP candidate!!)
In short,SG is rubbish.
B.CSJ wanted to cover
up from his western frens that this poor
blogger was a lawyer in SG for 10 years,before he
migrated
to Calif and became a immgration lawyer since 1990's.
He has been lawyers for 25 years.
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