The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) has demanded that Singaporean human rights lawyer M. Ravi apologise and retract allegations that he made about the prosecution during an interview with The Online Citizen (TOC).

The interview took place outside of the Supreme Court building on Monday (Oct. 19), after the the Court of Appeal overturned the death penalty for a Malaysian who had been convicted of drug trafficking, Gobi Avedian, due to miscarriage of justice.

In response, Ravi announced on Facebook that he would be taking legal action against three of the AGC's Senior Counsels, and asked the Deputy Attorney-General to apologise to him.

Background on Gobi's case

According to CNA, Gobi was a security guard who lived in Johor Bahru and would commute to work in Singapore.

He was told he could earn money by delivering drugs mixed with chocolate to Singapore.

He reportedly initially refused to do the delivery, but eventually agreed because he needed money to pay for his daughter's operation.

On Dec. 11, 2014, Gobi was caught at Woodlands Checkpoint.

He was charged with importing 40.22 grammes of heroin, convicted, and sentenced to death.

In 2017, however, he was acquitted by a High Court judge and had his charge reduced to attempted drug importation, reported CNA. 

The following year, in 2018, however, Gobi was convicted by the Court of Appeal on the original capital charge, after an appeal by the prosecution.

On Monday, the conviction for the capital charge was set aside by the Court of Appeal.

This was based on new findings of law in the case of a Nigerian man who was acquitted of his capital charge because he was found to not know about the presence of the drugs he had brought in to Singapore.

Based on that case, reported CNA, the Court of Appeal found that the prosecution was not able to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Gobi had been aware that the drugs he was carrying were heroin.

The court also found that the prosecution had changed its case before the High Court and the Court of Appeal; it argued wilful blindness by Gobi in the former, but argued that Gobi had actual knowledge in the latter.

The Court of Appeal found that this change prejudiced Gobi, according to CNA.

Therefore, on Monday, the court set aside his capital charge conviction, and he was instead found guilty of a reduced charge of attempted drug importation, and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment and 10 strokes of the cane, with his sentence backdated to the date of his remand.

Public prosecutor was "overzealous": Ravi

In his interview with TOC, Ravi said that the public prosecutor was "overzealous" in the prosecution of Gobi:

"The State has been overzealous in its prosecution. The Public Prosecutor has been overzealous in its prosecution, and that has led to the death sentence for Gobi."

He called attention to the fact that the public prosecutor had run a different case before the High Court and the Court of Appeal, saying it was "troubling", and said that the "fairness of the Prosecution is called into question".

Ravi also asked for the public prosecutor and the government to apologise to Gobi:

"I'm saying this to the State and the prosecution and the Minister of Law: please apologise to Gobi for the suffering his family and he has gone through during this process."

AGC sends letter asking Ravi to apologise and renounce allegations

In a press statement on Oct. 20, the AGC called Ravi's statements "serious allegations that the public prosecutor has acted in bad faith or maliciously in the prosecution of [Gobi]", saying that they were "false and highly inflammatory".

The AGC said that it had sent Ravi a letter earlier in the day demanding that he apologise and unconditionally renounce his allegations.

"It is highly improper and entirely contrary to Mr Ravi’s obligations as an officer of the court for him to make these unfounded, baseless and misleading allegations."

The statement added that the Court of Appeal made no adverse findings against the public prosecutor or the prosecution of Gobi.

In addition, it said that the Court of Appeal said that the initial decision to convict Gobi was "correct at the time [it was] made", and that none of the arguments considered in the most recent judgment could have been made previously, "in view of the legal position as it was understood then".

The AGC gave Ravi until 12pm on Thursday (Oct. 22) to respond.

Ravi taking legal action against three senior counsels

In a Facebook post on Tuesday (Oct. 20), Ravi shared photos of the letter issued to him by the AGC.

The letter noted that if Ravi failed to apologise and unconditionally retract his allegations in writing, the AGC would file a complaint against him.

In response, Ravi said in his post that he had been instructed by Gobi and his family to commence proceedings against Attorney-General Lucien Wong, Deputy Attorney-General Hri Kumar Nair — who issued the letter to Ravi — and Mohamed Faizal, who serves as a deputy chief prosecutor and senior state counsel in the AGC, and was involved in Gobi's case.

He said that he will be filing the writ of summons in the next few days, against the three government lawyers.

"They have to be accountable to Gobi and his family in court and be subject to rigorous cross examination and [public] scrutiny of their conduct of Gobi's case."

Ravi shared that he will be responding to the AGC letter, which he called "threatening and humiliating", accordingly.

He further said that Nair owes him an apology for sending the letter, as it is essentially "humiliating Gobi and his family by insulting them further to threaten their counsel to apologise".

Ravi also encouraged the public to demand that the AGC retract their letter and apologise.

He also said that he will commence proceedings against the Law Society of Singapore "if it does not do its part to protect lawyers and the independence of the profession", or if it "entertains any further complaints" or "participates in any harassment" by the AGC.

You can read his Facebook post here.

Mothership has reached out to the AGC for a response to Ravi's Facebook post, and will update this article if we receive a statement.

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Top photo via Facebook / The Online Citizen and Wikimedia Commons.