KUALA LUMPUR – Lawyers for Liberty director Zaid Malek slammed Singapore’s authorities for alleged acts of calculated intimidation and harassment, as he was detained for police questioning days before Malaysian Kalwant Singh was executed.
The lawyer said that the investigation – from July 4 to 6 – had obstructed and hampered him from assisting and advising Kalwant’s family days before the latter’s court hearing and execution, even though the Singapore police were aware of his visit’s purpose.
“My detention and interrogation were acts of calculated intimidation and harassment by the Singapore authorities against me due to my work in representing Malaysian death row prisoners and speaking out against the injustices involving Malaysian prisoners in Singapore’s death penalty regime.
“The actions of the authorities against me prevented me as a lawyer from properly discharging my duties to my clients.
“What is also serious is that I was being detained and probed over a statement issued in Malaysia, and not in Singapore. By doing so, the Singapore authorities are now dangerously claiming extra-territorial jurisdiction over Malaysian citizens making statements on Malaysian soil,” he said in a statement last night.
He was also served letters informing that he and LFL are being investigated for contempt of court over a LFL statement published by the Malay Mail on February 14, 2020.
The article carried Zaid’s comments on the dismissal of suits filed by Malaysian death row prisoners Gobi Avedian and Datchinamurty Kataiah.
Zaid said he was informed that investigations found he committed an offence of contempt of court, and was punishable with a three-year jail term or a fine of up to S$100,000 (RM316,371).
He added that he had arrived at Seletar Airport, Singapore on July 4 at around 2.15pm but was detained by immigration for four hours without explanation.
Later, he was met with one ASP Desmond Ng at 6pm and was served a notice compelling him to be present at the Police Cantonment Complex on July 6.
“I was interrogated for two and a half hours, during which detailed questions were asked about the organisation and other details of Lawyers for Liberty. At about 12.30pm I was released and told that I would be summoned for further questioning later that same day. I was again warned not to attempt to leave the country.
“Later that night, around 8.30pm, I received a call from Ng directing me to return to the same police complex. Upon arrival, I was taken to the room of Supt Roy Lim, head of the special investigation team.”
“At this point, Lim served me two letters. The first was a conditional warning issued to me personally warning me that I had committed the offence and ordering me to ‘refrain from any criminal conduct for a period of 24 months’, failing which I would be charged in court. The second letter was in the same terms and directed to Lawyers for Liberty.
“In total, I was subjected to about four hours of detention at the airport and about 3.5 hours of interrogation at the police complex.”
Kalwant was executed yesterday morning after his final bid to escape the gallows was rejected.
He was arrested in the island state in 2013 for possessing 60.15g of diamorphine and trafficking 120.9g of the substance, before being convicted three years later.
He had been on death row since then.
On the eve of his execution, some 20 people, including human rights advocates, held a candlelight vigil as a final protest against Kalwant’s death sentence at the Singapore High Commission here.
As for Datchinamurthy, he remains on death row pending a court appeal, despite initially being scheduled for execution a day after Malaysian Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, whose execution garnered international outcry. – The Vibes, July 8, 2022
