Gobi Avedian, a Malaysian drug runner, filed a civil suit against the Attorney-General, a deputy attorney-general and five prosecutors.
The defendants include the office of the Attorney-General, current Attorney-General Lucien Wong, Deputy Attorney-General Hri Humar Nair, Deputy Chief Prosecutor Mohamed Faizal Mohamed Abdul Kadir, and prosecutors Tan Zhongshan, Nicholas Wuan, Chin Jincheng and Chong Kee En.
Lest you’re confused, just think of it this way: the Attorney-General is like a team of lawyers from the Government that “sue” people in Singapore for breaking the law.
Gobi had sued the defendants and Deputy Attorney-General Lionel Yee in November 2020 through his lawyer M. Ravi.
The civil suit against Mr Yee was subsequently dropped.
Gobi was given 15 years’ jail and 10 strokes of the cane instead of the death penalty last year.
He then sought damages from the defendants (yes, in this case, the defendants are the prosecutors, and not the other way around), alleging that they had abused their authority and performed a legal act in an improper manner.
He alleged that the defendants had run a different prosecution’s case during appeal in comparison to his trial, which was a breach of their “fundamental duties to assist in the administration of justice”.
In response, the defendants maintained that they had acted in accordance with the law and they applied for the suit to be struck out.
They said that Gobi’s claim was “baseless and entirely without merit”, and that he had no evidence to substantiate his claims that the defendants had acted in bad faith.
On 15 April, Justice Chua Lee Ming granted the defendants’ application to strike out the suit. For the most part, he agreed with the defendants’ arguments and also noted that some of the requirements for Gobi’s claim to succeed had not been met.
He also said that Gobi’s claim was “unsustainable”.
Now, if you’re confused again, here’s another thing to learn about the justice system in Singapore: anyone can file a lawsuit, but whether it’ll go to court is another thing altogether, because let’s face it: in some cases, people anyhowly sue and it’s up to someone to decide whether there’s a case or not.
Gobi’s lawyer, Mr Ravi, told ST that he had been discharged from representing Gobi in the suit, adding that Gobi “does not wish to trouble [them] further”.
Spared From the Gallows
Gobi was caught at Woodlands Checkpoint on 11 Dec 2014 and was at first charged with the importation of 40.22g of heroin.
The High Court found in 2017 that Gobi was unaware of the nature of the drugs he was carrying, hence they convicted him of a lesser charge. However, the Court of Appeal gave him the death sentence in 2018 after allowing an appeal by the prosecution.
Gobi then asked the apex court in 2019 to review its decision. Mr Ravi, who was representing Gobi at the time, argued that the ruling made by the court in a separate 2019 case of another drug offender should similarly be applied to Gobi’s case.
The apex court agreed with Mr Ravi and Gobi was spared from the death penalty.
Featured Image: New Africa / Shutterstock.com
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