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SINGAPORE: The Ministry of the Interior (MFA) said on Tuesday (September 22) that there was no “legal ban” in 2018 against the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) extending letters written by a convicted drug trafficker to the Attorney General’s Office (AGC) .
Defense attorney M Ravi alleged during a hearing Tuesday that SPS had violated client-attorney privilege by delivering private letters from Syed Suhail Syed Zin, who was convicted in 2015, to the AGC.
He was scheduled to be hanged on September 18 this year, but the execution was stayed at the last minute after the intervention of his lawyer.
The “violation” was raised by the Community Action Network of the human rights coalition in a statement Monday.
READ: Court of Appeal orders more arguments in case of drug trafficker sentenced to death, execution pending
In a statement, MHA laid out the circumstances surrounding the incident.
He said that during a hearing before the Court of Appeals on May 3, 2018, Syed Suhail informed the Court that he wished to present evidence from his uncle for appeal purposes, having given the Court several reasons during the trial not to call his uncle as a defense witness.
MHA added that the hearing was postponed for the parties to consider this request and the Court of Appeals allowed the AGC to file an answer if it thought Syed Suhail was abusing the Court process.
MHA said that in preparing its response, AGC approached SPS to verify whether Syed Suhail had expressed any prior intention to call his uncle as a witness. SPS checks revealed that Syed Suhail had informed the Superintendent of his intention to call his uncle as a defense witness. He had also written four letters to his uncle.
“In this context, SPS issued a copy of these letters and a letter to its then adviser (that is, the Letter) to the AGC on May 10, 2018 and June 7, 2018,” the ministry said. “At that time, there was no legal prohibition in the Prison Act or Regulation against doing so.”
ALLEGATIONS OF DISCRIMINATION ‘NO BASIS’: MHA
The MHA also denied allegations of discrimination or irregularity in the scheduling of judicial executions.
Attorney M Ravi said there was prejudice as his client was lined up to be hanged before foreigners for reasons related to COVID-19.
Syed Suhail had submitted an application to the High Court for authorization to initiate judicial review proceedings against the Singapore Prison Service (SPS), to stay the execution of his sentence.
He alleged that the judicial execution order violates his constitutional right to equal treatment under article 12, since differential treatment has been applied between foreigners and Singaporeans in the programming of his judicial execution.
Syed Suhail’s application was dismissed by Judge See Kee Oon on September 17, and the Court of Appeal heard the appeal on Tuesday. The parties were ordered to submit further submissions and will return to the Court of Appeal on a date to be set after October 6.
“All prisoners sentenced to capital punishment receive due process in accordance with the law,” the ministry said in its statement.
“A judicial execution will only be scheduled after an inmate has exhausted all legal channels of appeal and clemency, regardless of whether the prisoner is a Singaporean or a foreigner.”
The ministry added that four judicial executions were carried out in 2019, involving two Singaporeans and two foreigners.
“Such allegations are unsubstantiated and will be comprehensively addressed in the MHA’s response to be filed prior to the next hearing date.”
The ministry said it cannot comment further as the matter is currently in court.
