Chees sentenced to 12 days & 10 days for contempt of court

I received the news earlier today and posted it on my twitter (see sidebar or here). I wasn't surprised. Just plain fed-up and disgusted with the courts for this blatant injustice. SDP's website will probably have more details soon. For now, here are two foreign news media reports about today,

S'pore opposition leader jailed for contempt of court

SINGAPORE, June 2 - A Singapore court sentenced an opposition leader to 12 days in jail on Monday for contempt of court during a case to determine the size of damages he has to pay for defaming the city state's leaders.

Chee Soon Juan, the leader of the Singapore Democratic Party , was found by the judge to have "scandalised the court" and "obstructed the administration of justice" during a three-day hearing to decide on damages to be awarded to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father Lee Kuan Yew.

Chee's sister Chee Siok Chin, a senior member of the SDP, was also sentenced to a 10-day jail term for the same offence. The 12-day jail term was the longest awarded for this charge, said M. Ravi, Chee's legal advisor.

The judge said Chee accused the court of being biased and having pre-judged the defamation hearing, as well as not obeying the judge's orders to stop particular lines of questioning.

The SDP, Chee and his sister were found to have defamed the Lees in a 2006 article.

The defamation hearing last week, in which the Chees cross-examined the Lees, saw Chee Soon Juan calling Lee Kuan Yew a "pitiable figure" and Lee saying that Chee was a "near psychopath".

"At no point was there a deliberate attempt to do anything that would scandalise the court," Chee said to the court during Monday's hearing for contempt of court.

"There were many political arguments made and in the heat of the battle, Mr. Lee said some things and I said some things. It was in this context that some things were said and done," he said.

Singapore has been dominated by one party -- the People's Action Party -- since its independence in 1965. The Singapore Democratic Party is one of the more vocal opposition parties in Singapore but it did not win a seat in parliament in the last election in 2006.

(Reporting by Melanie Lee and Vivek Prakash; editing by Neil Chatterjee and Bill Tarrant)

Singapore opposition leader sentenced to jail for contempt

SINGAPORE (AFP) - - An opposition party leader who said justice had been "raped" and "kicked" during a defamation case filed by Singapore's leaders was sentenced to 12 days in jail Monday for contempt.

Chee Soon Juan, 45, secretary general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), remains free pending his filing of an appeal by Wednesday.

Supreme Court Justice Belinda Ang Saw Ean also sentenced Chee's sister, SDP member Chee Siok Chin, to 10 days in jail for contempt. She is also free pending appeal.

Chee, his sister and their party have already been found guilty of libelling Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The contempt proceedings stemmed from comments they made during a three-day hearing before Ang last week to determine libel damages.

She ruled that Chee's behaviour "amounted to acts that scandalised the court" and adversely affected the administration of justice.

Chee is among a very few in Singapore to have spoken out against the People's Action Party (PAP), which has ruled since 1959.

In 2006 he was jailed for a then-unprecedented eight days for contempt after questioning the integrity of the judicial system in a statement he read during his bankruptcy hearing earlier that year.

He was declared bankrupt after failing to pay 500,000 Singapore dollars (366,300 US) in libel damages to Lee Kuan Yew and another former prime minister over remarks made in 2001.

This is another, more detailed AFP report,

Singapore opposition leader sentenced to jail for contempt

SINGAPORE (AFP) — A Singapore opposition leader who is among a rare few to publicly challenge the country's rulers was sentenced Monday to 12 days' jail for contempt, in the latest legal ruling against him.

A judge ruled Chee Soon Juan, 45, secretary general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), had been in contempt because he said justice had been "raped" and "kicked" during a defamation case filed by Singapore's leaders against him.

He remains free but Supreme Court Justice Belinda Ang Saw Ean ruled that Chee will be taken to jail if he does not file an appeal by late Wednesday.

Ang also sentenced Chee's sister, SDP member Chee Siok Chin, to 10 days in jail for contempt. She, too, is free pending appeal.

Monday's hearing briefly brought Chee and the city-state's other outspoken opposition figure, J.B. Jeyaretnam, 82, together in a rare public joining of forces by the country's tiny opposition.

Jeyaretnam appeared in court as Chee's lawyer but later withdrew at Chee's request when Ang declined his application for more time to prepare his case. The lawyer said he had only received relevant transcripts the previous morning.

Jeyaretnam last month filed papers to register the new opposition Reform Party. He made political history in 1981 when he became the first opposition politician elected to parliament, which has been dominated by the People's Action Party (PAP) since 1959.

Ang rejected Jeyaretnam's argument that she withdraw from the contempt case. He said that since the contempt allegations arose from an earlier hearing before her, there could be a public perception of bias.

"I would urge your honour to consider very seriously whether you should hear this case," Jeyaretnam said.

"There is no option," the judge responded.

Chee, his sister, and their party have already been found guilty of libelling Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The contempt proceedings stemmed from comments they made during a three-day hearing before Ang last week to determine libel damages in that case.

Chee told the judge he did not intend to be in contempt and anything said came in "the heat of the battle" with his political opponents.

"Mr Lee had said a few things. I had countered them," Chee said.

In 2006 he was jailed for a then-unprecedented eight days for contempt after questioning the integrity of the judicial system in a statement he read during his bankruptcy hearing earlier that year.

He was declared bankrupt after failing to pay 500,000 Singapore dollars (366,300 US) in libel damages to Lee Kuan Yew and another former prime minister over remarks made in 2001.

Last Friday a judge fined Chee for speaking in public without a permit ahead of a general election in 2006. He will be jailed for five weeks if he does not pay the 5,000-dollar fine, the judge ruled.

Chee has served previous jail terms for convictions on similar charges.

His latest sentence on Monday came as a California-based blogger appeared in a separate courtroom charged over comments he made about the defamation case.

Gopalan Nair, a former Singapore lawyer who is now a US citizen, was arrested Saturday and charged Monday morning with insulting a public servant, his lawyer Chia Ti Lik told AFP.

Chia said Nair allegedly wrote an email to Supreme Court Justice Belinda Ang Saw Ean, the solicitor general, and attorney general essentially repeating comments he made in a recent blog about the defamation case.

In the blog, Nair strongly criticised last week's hearing involving Chee and the Lees.

A US embassy spokesman confirmed the arrest and said it is "monitoring the case closely."

The Lees have already won hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages from past lawsuits against members of the country's opposition and say that they need to protect their reputations from unfounded attacks.