A BRITISH author launched an appeal on Monday against a six-week
jail term for scandalising Singapore's judiciary, saying the
charges against him were 'bloody nonsense'.
Alan Shadrake, 76, was sentenced and fined $20,000 in November
last year after Singapore's High Court ruled that his book on the
death penalty broke the city-state's laws.
Shadrake's lawyer M. Ravi told the Court of Appeal on Monday the
book, entitled Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock,
did not damage public confidence in the judiciary.
'If the book had been considered to be as dangerous and risky...
It is astonishing that it is not banned,' Mr Ravi said.
'The Singapore citizen is not so gullible as to lose faith in
the judicial system... regardless of any abusive criticism directed
at it.' The court reserved its judgment.
Shadrake, who is on bail, said after the hearing that bringing
the charges against him 'is bloody nonsense and if they put me in
prison, I don't care'.
-- AFP