Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Singapore Court jails U.S. Blogger, Gopalan Nair aka Singapore Dissident, for 3 months; Sentence begins Sat, 20 Sept

This video was made sometime late-August 2008. Read here about a petition, which I signed, with regards to Gopalan Nair.

Gopalan Nair jailed 3 mths

By Zakir Hussain, Correspondent, Straits Times, 17 Sept 08

FORMER Singaporean lawyer Gopalan Nair was sentenced to three months jail on Wednesday after he was found guilty of insulting a High Court judge in a posting on his blog.

Justice Kan Ting Chiu delivered his verdict after a seven-day hearing at the High court.

Nair, 58, now an American citizen, asked for and was given three days to settle his affairs.

He will present himself at the High Court at noon on Saturday to begin his sentence.

He was charged with insulting Justice Belinda Ang in a blog posting on May 29. It was posted online shortly after he attended a three-day court hearing over which she had presided.

That hearing was to assess damages in a defamation suit that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew won against the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), its chief Chee Soon Juan and his sister Chee Siok Chin.

Nair had, in his blog posting, written that 'the judge Belinda Ang was throughout prostituting herself during the entire proceedings, by being nothing more than an employee of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders.'

Nair, who represented himself at the hearing and was charged under Section 228 of the Penal Code, declined to comment after the sentencing. He told reporters outside the court: 'I don't have anything to say.'

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