Reuters - 1 hour 4 minutes
ago
The Southeast Asian city-state's Law Minister S. Jayakumar told
lawmakers in July last year that this "kind of clerical mistake is
an extremely rare occurrence". (Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing
by Jan Dahinten and David Fox) - SINGAPORE, March 27 - A Singapore
man is suing the government for around S$3 million in damages for
mistakenly caning him three more strokes than he was sentenced to,
court documents showed on Thursday.
Dickson Tan, 21, who was jailed for nine months and sentenced to
five strokes of the cane last year for helping an illegal
moneylender, was beaten eight times instead as a result of an
administrative error.
Caning on the buttocks is an additional punishment for male
criminals in Singapore for offences ranging from vandalism to
illegal possession of drugs and rape.
It is administered by select prison officers who use a
water-soaked ratan cane to beat the offender, who is strapped to a
triangular trellis.
According to court documents filed by the plaintiff on
Wednesday, Tan attempted to point out the error before his caning
on March 29 last year, but was told that the "records in the file
could not be wrong".
Tan is suing the government for negligence and is hoping to
claim between S$1.7 million and S$3 million in total damages, his
lawyer Joseph Chen told Reuters.
He said Tan had received S$8,000 in the form of an "interim
payment", a non-liability payment meant to help indigent
plaintiffs.
"This was a failure in the administration of justice," Chen
said.
Singapore's attorney-general chambers and the ministry for home
affairs could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts
on Thursday evening.
Tan, who is unemployed, told Reuters that he decided to sue the
government after three unsuccessful rounds of mediation. Tan
suffered from depression and post traumatic stress disorder after
the beating, a psychiatric report showed.
"I want just compensation, they must be responsible," he
said.
This is the second time the Singapore government has been sued
for meting out the wrong number of strokes. In 1991, it was sued by
a man who was caned 48 times instead of his sentenced 24 strokes,
media reports said.
He was given undisclosed compensation without the case going to
court.
The Southeast Asian city-state's Law Minister S. Jayakumar told
lawmakers in July last year that this "kind of clerical mistake is
an extremely rare occurrence". (Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing
by Jan Dahinten and David Fox)
