[ad_1]
SINGAPORE – On Friday (October 16) the Court of Appeals dismissed an “evidently unfounded” attempt by a drug trafficker to review his case in an attempt to escape from the gallows.
In dismissing Syed Suhail Syed Zin’s application, Appellate Judge Andrew Phang said finality is a fundamental part of the legal system, without which “dissatisfied litigants could (and probably would) make repeated requests to the courts.”
“Judicial decisions must confer certainty and stability, and it is impossible to have a properly functioning legal system if legal decisions are open to ‘constant and incessant challenge,'” he said.
“In fact, it cannot be the case that a dissatisfied litigant can submit repeated requests until the desired result is achieved. If so, that would be the same perversion of justice and equity and would be a mockery of the rule of law, “he said.
The judge added that lawyers should discourage clients from repeatedly bringing “clearly unfounded requests” to court.
The court, which was also made up of Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Appellate Judge Judith Prakash, said it would not hesitate to dismiss such requests at an earlier stage of the license in the future.
About the case
Suhail, 44, received the mandatory death penalty in December 2015 for trafficking no less than 38.84 g of heroin. He was arrested in 2011 with the drugs in his room and claimed that it was all for his personal use, although he admitted to selling drugs in May of that year.
The superior court dismissed his appeal in October 2018. Among other things, it found that Suhail never mentioned to investigators that the drugs were for his own use; the tests did not point to his presumed consumption of 12 to 18 g of heroin per day; and that his text messages revealed that he was in dire need of money.
On September 8, the president ordered that Suhail’s sentence be carried out on September 18. But on September 17, Suhail’s attorney, M Ravi, submitted a final request to the higher court to review the case at both sentencing and conviction.
In a hearing on September 22, Ravi also argued that the entire body of prosecutors in the Attorney General’s Office (AGC) was not addressing the court because the AGC had found a letter from Suhail to his then lawyer Ramesh Tiwary and four letters from Suhail to your uncle. The prison service had forwarded the letters.
But the AGC team clarified that they did not see those letters and the supreme court found no basis to disqualify the team.
“We take this opportunity to reiterate that this is not the proper way to raise such issues in court. There was an emotional quality to the presentations that were being made, but a court is obliged to deal with such matters only on the basis of established legal principles, ”the higher court said.
Aside from the failed review request, Ravi has also filed a judicial review request on Suhail’s behalf, arguing that his previously scheduled execution before others on death row is unconstitutional. The case is scheduled for next Friday.
Execution of drug trafficker on hold after Court of Appeal orders new submissions
