LFL ordered to pay S$1,000 legal costs by Singapore court

 

The Court of Appeal in Singapore said Lawyers for Liberty had abused the court’s process. (Wikipedia pic)

PETALING JAYA: Rights group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) were ordered to pay legal costs of S$1,000 for “abusing” the court process by taking part in an attempt to halt the execution of two drug traffickers, including a Malaysian.

The Singapore Court of Appeal said LFL had abused the system by joining the pair in filing a criminal motion seeking a review of an earlier decision to uphold the death sentences, the Straits Times reported.

The appellate court said the procedure was “not there to be used by private organisations for their own purposes”.

It also said that LFL’s reason to become an applicant was meant to “obtain publicity for its abolitionist aims”, referring to the group’s campaign against the death penalty.

Charles Yeo, the counsel for Singaporean Roslan Bakar and Sabahan Pausi Jefridin, was also ordered to pay S$4,000 in costs to the attorney-general.

The court said the motion filed by the duo and LFL caused the Singaporean attorney-general to incur unnecessary cost in both proceedings.

Roslan and Pausi were arrested in 2008 on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to death two years later.

The duo were initially scheduled to be sent to the gallows on Feb 16, but Yeo filed a criminal motion seeking a review of the apex court’s 2018 decision.

LFL – who previously raised concerns that Pausi has an IQ of only 67, which suggests he has an intellectual disability – was named as a party in the application, which was dismissed on Feb 15.

Yeo then filed a civil application to start judicial review proceedings to declare that the death sentences were unconstitutional, but was dismissed on Feb 16.

Roslan and Pausi’s executions have been put off for an unstated length of time, after they were granted a respite by the republic’s president Halimah Yacob. - FMT