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Ms. Parti Liyani requests permission from the Chief Justice for a disciplinary court to investigate the conduct of her prosecutors.
The 46-year-old is the former domestic assistant of businessman Liew Mun Leong.
Initially convicted of robbing her former employer in District Court, the Indonesian woman was acquitted earlier this month of the five charges following an appeal to the High Court.
Yesterday, her attorney, Mr. Anil Balchandani, attended a pre-trial conference in the High Court regarding her application.
The hearing was for a subpoena originated under the Law of Legal Profession.
Mr. Tan Wee Hao and Ms. Tan Yingying, the assistant prosecutors who conducted his trial, have been identified as the defendants in the case.
They are represented by Ms. Kristy Tan Ruyan, Mr. Jeyendran Jeyapal and Ms. Jocelyn Teo Meng Hui from the civil division of the Attorney General’s Office.
[[nid:501579]]Explaining this fact, Singapore Management University lawyer Eugene Tan said that Ms Parti appears to be seeking disciplinary proceedings against legal service officials related to her case.
“Basically, she is seeking authorization from the Chief Justice for an investigation to be carried out into the allegation of alleged misconduct against the legal service agents involved,” he said.
He said that if the Chief Justice gives his permission, a disciplinary tribunal can be formed to determine whether there was misconduct on the part of the officers.
If so, they can be censored or barred from applying for a certificate of practice for up to five years, have their name removed from the list, or be fined up to $ 20,000.
Ms. Parti was charged with stealing some 144 items worth about $ 50,000 from the Liews and was convicted in District Court last year after a trial.
Judge Chan Seng Onn, in his ruling that overturned his conviction earlier this month, said he found the trial judge’s decision to be “unsafe.”
INADEQUATE REASON
[[nid:500904]]He referred to the “improper motive” of the family in filing the police report against Ms Parti and raised questions about how the case was handled.
In one example, he said the trial court could have been misled into thinking that a DVD player presented as evidence was in good condition when defective.
It also discovered that there was a break in the chain of custody of the evidence, raising reasonable doubts as to whether the police had accurately documented some of the allegedly stolen items.
After her acquittal, the Minister of Internal Affairs and Law, K. Shanmugam, said authorities were investigating what went wrong in the chain of events that led to Ms. Parti being found guilty.
