by Andrea Ong
A FINE that lawyer and opposition politician Chia Ti Lik has to
pay after having been found guilty of professional misconduct will
not disqualify him from contesting in the coming general election,
legal experts say.
On Tuesday, a disciplinary tribunal found Mr Chia, 36, guilty of
five charges filed against him by the Law Society of Singapore. He
faces a fine but the amount has not yet been decided.
The disciplinary process is provided for in the Legal Profession
Act to investigate complaints about lawyers' conduct.
The Law Society filed charges against Mr Chia following a
complaint from the Attorney-General's Chambers on blog postings by
the Socialist Front (SF) secretary-general between June 2008 and
June 2009.
The Singapore Constitution states that a person is disqualified
from being a Member of Parliament if he has been jailed for one
year or more, or fined $2,000 or more, by a court of law.
The disciplinary tribunal that found Mr Chia guilty of
professional misconduct does not constitute a court of law, said
Singapore Management University law academic Jack Lee. 'This
punishment is not something which would disqualify him from
standing.'
