![[UPDATED] S’pore court pushes death row inmate Datchinamurthy’s hearing to July 1](https://media.thevibes.com/images/uploads/covers/_large/datchinamurthy_kataiah_m_ravi_facebook_pic.png)
KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian citizen Datchinamurthy Kataiah’s hearing regarding a challenge on prison correspondence misconduct today has been vacated.
The decision was confirmed by Lawyers for Liberty adviser N. Surendran who told The Vibes “it’s upon the Singapore Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) request”.
According to court documents sighted by The Vibes, the hearing that was fixed for today was vacated before Justice Ang Cheng Hock at the AGC’s request pursuant to discussion at the pre-trial conference (PTC) on May 9.
Ang then fixed July 1, 10am, for a full day hearing.
“Written submissions (including supplementary submissions) are to be filed (in court) and exchanged by June 24, 4pm,” it said.
According to the court document, the next PTC is fixed for May 30 at 2.30pm via a Zoom meeting.
Datchinamurthy along with 21 other death row inmates in Changi Prison, who had their private letters to their lawyers and family forwarded by prison officials to the AGC, are pursuing legal proceedings.
The prisoners, who were represented by human rights lawyer M. Ravi, were contemplating filing a suit against the AGC or its members for alleged breaches of conduct to protect the inmates’ rights, misconduct in public office and seeking damages for any harm caused by such.
They sought the identities of individuals involved in making orders or carrying out the sending of the inmates’ information to the AGC.
However, the suit was dismissed on March 16, 2021 and all the prisoners were ordered by Justice See Kee Oon to pay SG$10 in costs.
On July 7, Datchinamurthy and 12 prisoners out of a total of 22 original plaintiffs filed a civil case against the AG on the matter.
The 12 plantiffs are Syed Suhail Syed Zin, Gobi Avedian, Hamzah Ibrahim, Iskandar Rahmat, Saminathan Selvaraju, Rosman Abdullah, Roslan Bakar, Masoud Rahimi Mehrzad, Zamri Mohd Tahir, Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, Tan Kay Yong and Ramdhan Lajis.
Last November, the suit was withdrawn by Ravi, who was also ordered to pay SG$10,000 in personal costs to the AG over the court application.
However, the suit has been refiled and the verdict is pending. – The Vibes, May 20, 2022
