One of the earliest “famous” murders took place in 1170 in Canterbury England, when four knights hacked the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Beckett to death. The story goes that the four knights had heard King Henry II remark “Will no one rid of this turbulent priest,” when he got the news that Thomas Beckett had excommunicated some clergy men who were supporters of the king.
Apart from the gruesome
murder, the most prominent part of this story is the fact that the knights were
never given orders to kill Thomas Beckett by the king. However, given that the
king was venting to his household staff, there is good cause to suggest that
the knights were fearful that displeasing the king would cost them and so,
while no explicit orders were given, the knights interpreted the king’s wishes
as such.
I’m reminded of
this event in English history because we in Singapore have been seeing some
parallels here. The case of Parti Liyani, the Indonesian maid who was acquitted
of theft by her former employer, former Changi Airport Chairman, Mr. Liew Mun
Leong, has taken a new twist. Mr. Liew’s son, Karl, who was a protagonist in case
against Ms. Liyani has just been sentenced to two weeks in jail for lying to
the police and to the judge in the earlier case. The full report o the story
can be found at:
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/karl-liew-admits-lying-parti-liyani-trial-3384201
Had it not been
for the district judge, the younger Mr. Liew would have gotten off with a fine
of S$5,000, which when you consider the fact that Mr. Liew’s family is considered
one of the more prominent ones in corporate Singapore, a relatively small sum.
The facts of
the case are not in dispute and in fairness, we cannot blame the defence counsel
for using the arguments available to him to get Mr. Liew off the hook. A defence
lawyer has a legal and moral obligation to give the best possible defence to
his or her client.
What must be
called into question is the AGC and its conduct in Mr. Liew’s case. Mr. Liew
admitted to lying under oath and gave false testimony. This is the text book definition
of perjury, which under Singapore’s penal code carries a jail sentence of seven-years:
You would imagine that this was an open and shut case and the AGC could have made a case for Singapore’s justice system by charging the younger Mr. Liew accordingly.
However, instead
of charging him with perjury, the AGC went with the charge of “giving false
information to a public servant knowing it would likely cause the public
servant to use their lawful power to the injury of another person,” and he admitted
to giving false testimony to the police. The consequences for these charges are
significantly less than perjury. The $5,000 fine imposed and two-week sentence
are the maximum allowable.
By going for
the lesser charges, the AGC had effectively ensured that whatever jail time and
fines he received would have been minimal.
The second factor
that should be considered is the AGC’s behaviour in court. Deputy Public Prosecutor
(DPP), Mr. Kelvin Chong stated that Mr. Liew was well aware that he was lying under
oath and the harm that it would cause Ms. Liyani. However, the DPP proceeded to
argue that there was “no malice” on the part of Mr. Liew and then argued that
no efforts to made to “bolster his lies.” In layman terms the prosecution was saying
“Mr. Liew lied under oath but since he’s not a good liar, no harm done – slap him
on the wrist with a fine and let’s move on.” As the Online Citizen reported –
the DPP and the AGC were doing the job of the defence counsel:
Some of the
best and brightest lawyers work for the AGC. Outside the courts, it is one of
the organs of our legal system, which we take so much pride in. However, if you
look at the AGC’s arguments both in the original prosecution of Parti Liyani
and in the prosecution of Karl Liew, the AGC has been made to look like it was
a group of kindergarten kids playing at being lawyers.
What would make
a normally proud and competent institution behave like this? I can look back at
the 1170 incident in Canterbury, England. The king said something and the
courtiers proceeded to treat it as a direct order. Think of Mr. Liew Mun Leong
and his family as being like the king. They wanted to be rid of the “turbulent maid”
who was not happy that they expected her to illegally do more work with no pay.
It’s on record that the police did a shoddy investigation. Its on record that
false testimony was given in court. Its now record that when the people who actually
committed a crime were caught, an organ of state became too incompetent to do
its job.
Parti Liyani
did not become the proverbial Thomas Beckett in this case because there must
have been a god smiling on her. That fact that her lawyer Anil Balchandani
worked tirelessly and for free is one miracle. The other miracle is Justice
Chan Seng Onn and now Justice Eugene Teo who stopped miscarriages of justice
from getting worse.
Unfortunately,
the case in 1170 and the Parti Liyani case have one serious divergence. After
Thomas Beckett was murdered, he became a saint and King Henry was vilified. The
Pope (back in the days when there was only a single church under the Pope)
demanded that the king do penance and got his way. The four knights who did the
deed were excommunicated and fled into exile. In a sense there was retribution.
In the Parti Liyani
case, the only form of retribution was public outcry. The elder Mr. Liew
resigned from the Chairmanship of Changi Airport. However, there’s been no acknowledgement
that a wrong had been committed. When Mr. Liew resigned, the great people of
the nation urged us all to remember the “good” that the elder Mr. Liew had
done. When the younger Mr. Liew admitted to committing a crime, the prosecuting
authority acted like his defence.
In the words of
our unconflicted writer and enforcer of laws, “something went wrong.” In this
case, there’s no need to get to the bottom of things because its there for all
to see. Now, are we going to understand that there’s a problem and fix it or will
our “elites” who defended Mr. Liew as things were going wrong came to light,
going to allow themselves to convince a sceptical public that all its suspicions
of the system being rigged were correct?
1 comment
The most shameful and disgusting behaviour and cover up of a miscarriage of justice. Thank you Justices. The AG, and his buddy the PM, DPP who corruptly under prosecuted an open and shut case, and SIO who did the investigation, should all be sacked. Fired. Vamoose.
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