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 Thursday, September 18, 2008 |
Singapore court sentences US blogger to 3 months for insulting judge
Joe Shaulis at 4:26 PM ET
[JURIST] US blogger and attorney Gopalan Nair [personal blog; law firm profile] was sentenced to three months in jail Wednesday for insulting a Singaporean judge. Justice Kan Ting Chiu of the Singaporean High Court [official website] told Nair that he had "scandalized" the nation's judiciary by accusing a judge of "prostituting herself" [blog entry] in a defamation case brought by former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew [official profile] against the Singapore Democratic Party. Nair, who pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges earlier this month, said he had no regrets about what he had written. Reporters Without Borders [advocacy website] on Thursday condemned the sentence [press release] as "disproportionate." The group said Nair plans to appeal by Saturday, when he is scheduled to begin serving his sentence. AFP has more. The Straits Times has local coverage.
Under a provision of the Singaporean Penal Code [text], insulting a public servant conducting a judicial proceeding is punishable by up to one year in prison, a $5,000 fine or both. Nair faces another trial on a charge of insulting a second judge. He is also appealing a conviction [Straits Times report] on charges of disorderly conduct and using abusive words toward police officers. Before becoming a US citizen, Nair was a Singaporean opposition politician. In July, a report by the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) concluded [JURIST report] that Singapore [JURIST news archive] lacks an independent judiciary and fails to meet international standards of human rights by heavily regulating international and domestic press and enforcing extreme defamation laws.
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Paper Chase is JURIST's real-time legal news service, powered by a team of 30 law student reporters and editors led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. As an educational service, Paper Chase is dedicated to presenting important legal news and materials rapidly, objectively and intelligibly in an accessible, ad-free format.
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