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SINGAPORE: Parti Liyani, a former domestic worker of businessman Liew Mun Leong, has gone to court to seek disciplinary proceedings against prosecutors in her case.
If successful, procedures could be initiated to assess whether there was any misconduct by prosecutors.
Ms. Parti’s attorney, Mr. Anil Balchandani, attended a pre-trial conference in the High Court on Wednesday (September 23) against representatives of the Attorney General’s Office (AGC).
The hearing was for a subpoena originated under Section 82A of the Legal Professions Act, for disciplinary proceedings against legal service officials.
The defendants listed in Ms. Parti’s case are two assistant prosecutors who handled her trial: Mr. Tan Wee Hao and Ms. Tan Yanying. They are represented by AGC’s Kristy Tan Ruyan, Jeyendran Jeyapal, and Jocelyn Teo Meng Hui.
Timeline: How Former Maid Parti Liyani Was Cleared Of Stealing From Changi Airport Group Chairman Family
A citation of origin is a way to initiate a civil action and is based on affidavits submitted to support the case. It is heard before registrars or judges.
If the Chief Justice grants Ms. Parti permission to carry out an investigation into the allegation of misconduct, she may appoint a disciplinary tribunal. The court will then hear the case and investigate the complaint before presenting its findings to the Chief Justice. It may dismiss the complaint if the court does not find a sufficiently serious cause for disciplinary action, or order the imposition of sanctions.
Section 82A deals with the misconduct of non-practicing attorneys or legal service officials. If good cause is shown with proof that the legal service official is guilty of misconduct corresponding to her position as lawyer and attorney, she could be punished.
Penalties include censorship, being removed from the list, fines of up to S $ 20,000 or any other order that a disciplinary court deems appropriate.
When approached by the CNA, Balchandani confirmed that the hearing took place on Wednesday, but declined to comment.
READ: Judge’s findings ‘raise questions’ justifying further investigations after maid was acquitted of robbing CAG president’s family: AGC
READ: Parti Liyani case: Shanmugam says ‘something went wrong’ in chain of events, urges people not to ‘prejudge’ the review
Ms. Parti was acquitted earlier this month by the High Court of stealing items worth S $ 34,000 from the former Chairman of Changi Airport Group, Liew Mun Leong.
This came after she was convicted in a lower court. At Judge Chan Seng Onn’s trial on his acquittal, he outlined various problems with the conviction findings and how the case was handled.
He pointed out the prosecution’s use of a defective DVD player at the hearing and said that the fact that it was defective was not disclosed to the trial judge or Ms Parti. If the prosecutor had known about the defect, he should have fully disclosed it, Judge Chan said.
Otherwise, the trial court could be misled into thinking that the Pioneer DVD player was in good working order when “questions were (and unfairly) put to Ms Parti … on the basis of that the DVD player was still in good working order after an incomplete demonstration of its important functionalities during the trial, “he said.
In his view, he said that the rule against the presentation of bar evidence should apply equally to both the prosecution and the defense, and said that the DVD player incident was “particularly damaging to Ms Parti” as The player was not given a chance to test until the trial itself.
READ: The maid acquitted of robbing the family of the Chairman of the Changi Airport Group hid her ordeal from her family
A week after the acquittal, Mr. Liew announced that he was retiring from his commercial and public service roles at Changi Airport Group, Surbana Jurong, the Temasek Foundation and Temasek International.
CNA has contacted AGC for more information.
