Singapore’s High Court yesterday overturned a ruling acquitting a group of pro-democracy activists of taking part in an illegal march.
The five, who include members of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), were cleared last year of taking part in the September 2007 protest.
The High Court, however, accepted an appeal by the public prosecutor and ordered the court that made the original ruling to sentence the group.
High Court Judge Choo Han Teck said that “evidence on record shows that the respondents had a political purpose for what they called a ‘walk.’”
“This appeal is therefore allowed and the orders for acquittal against all five respondents are set aside,” Choo wrote in his ruling.
RARE VICTORY
Last year’s acquittal had been a rare legal victory for Singapore’s small group of pro-democracy activists who had in the past been jailed or fined for flouting the country’s strict laws on public assembly.
The five defendants had been charged for walking together wearing T-shirts with the words “Democracy Now” and “Freedom Now” in order to circumvent a law that barred public assemblies of more than four people without a police permit.
Last year, Singapore tightened its rules so that any political gathering outside a designated zone known as Speakers’ Corner would require a permit, regardless of the number of people involved.
SURPRISED
Chee Siok Chin, one of the five activists involved and an SDP member, said she was surprised by yesterday’s ruling.
“I think the impact, frankly speaking, is not on us. It’s on the judiciary,” she said.
Singapore, one of Asia’s wealthiest countries, has been ranked highly by surveys in terms of its attractiveness to foreign investors, but it has also been criticized for its tough curbs on free expression.
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
RUBBER STAMP? The latest legislative session was the most productive in the number of bills passed, but critics attributed it to a lack of dissenting voices On their last day at work, Hong Kong’s lawmakers — the first batch chosen under Beijing’s mantra of “patriots administering Hong Kong” — posed for group pictures, celebrating a job well done after four years of opposition-free politics. However, despite their smiles, about one-third of the Legislative Council will not seek another term in next month’s election, with the self-described non-establishment figure Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) being among those bowing out. “It used to be that [the legislature] had the benefit of free expression... Now it is more uniform. There are multiple voices, but they are not diverse enough,” Tik said, comparing it
RSS