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SINGAPORE – On the second day of the criminal defamation trial of The Online Citizen (TOC) editor Terry Xu and TOC contributor Daniel De Costa saw the latter’s attorney, Mr. M. Ravi, trying to cast doubt on the credibility of the witness for the prosecution.
In his cross-examination on Tuesday (October 27), Ravi questioned Sim Wee Lee, the owner of the Yahoo email account used to send the allegedly defamatory letter at the heart of the case, about various details about his checkered past. and your level of English proficiency.
De Costa and Xu were charged with defaming Singaporean cabinet members in 2018 over the email letter written by De Costa and posted by TOC, which claimed there was “corruption at the highest echelons” of the Popular Action Party ( PAP) leadership. The letter was signed “Willy Sum”, a name Mr. Sim sometimes uses.
De Costa was also charged with a felony under the Computer Misuse Act for using Sim’s Yahoo email account to send the letter without permission.
On Tuesday, Sim testified through a Mandarin interpreter that he became involved with an insurance fraud syndicate in 2008.
He said he misled an insurance company by making false accident claims, participated in illegal soccer gambling online and borrowed money from loan sharks while facing financial difficulties. Around the same time, his Vietnamese wife left him and moved to the United States with their 12-year-old daughter, whom Mr. Sim had adopted.
Mr. Sim said he was grateful to De Costa for being his listening ear during this difficult time and for helping him make an appointment with his deputy, Mr. Matthias Yao.
He had sought the help of MacPherson SMC MP in appealing to the Housing Board (HDB) for leniency in paying his service and maintenance charges (S&C), but his appeals were unsuccessful and the HDB finally got his flat back in 2012.
Mr. Ravi asked if Mr. Sim had developed dissatisfaction with the Government after he was unable to get help with his various problems.
He referenced a 2008 TOC article, co-written by De Costa and one Glenn Tan, who had used Sim’s various issues to criticize the perceived inaction of political officials and government agencies.
The article cited Mr. Sim’s full legal name and age, and contained an account of Mr. Sim’s encounters with harassment from loan sharks, his daughter’s failed application for permanent residence, his lack of help from his Council. Community Development Department and its difficulty in paying S&C fees to HDB.
Mr. Sim replied, “Of course, when you apply to a government agency and the application is rejected, in that time period you will definitely feel angry. But after a while, the anger will subside.”
Said Mr. Ravi: “I told him that I knew the article was going to be published. He was not happy with the government and he told Daniel De Costa to publish it because he wanted his problems to be made public.”
Mr. Sim disagreed, adding that he had confided in De Costa about his difficulties, but was not informed that De Costa intended to publish such an article.
“Borrowing money from a loan shark is not a glorious thing. If Daniel had consulted me, he would not have agreed to use my full name and age,” he said.
However, he admitted that he could not remember if someone from TOC had contacted him before the article was published.
Ravi also questioned whether Sim’s level of English was as poor as he had claimed. She noted that Mr. Sim had passed English on his elementary school completion exam and N-level exams, and also received spoken instructions in English during his National Service (NS).
Mr. Sim claimed that he had difficulty with sentence structure in English and often needed help from his HL peers who spoke Mandarin or Hokkien.
He had told the court on Monday that he had given the passwords to his email accounts to De Costa because he did not speak English well and needed De Costa’s help in composing emails to various government officials and agencies such as the HDB. .
During the trial, Mr. Ravi complained to the court that Xu’s lawyers had been late while he and his client were punctual.
At one point, he also suggested that he might refuse to proceed with the trial.
Mr. Ravi claimed that there was an appearance of bias on the part of District Judge Ng Peng Hong and asked the judge to disqualify himself. The judge refused to do so and Mr. Ravi proceeded with the questioning.
The trial continues on Thursday.
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