The Court of Appeal has dismissed a Criminal Motion made in Syed Suhail Bin Syed Zin's case, according to Suhail's lawyer M Ravi.

M Ravi argued before the Court of Appeal that as the prosecution was sent a copy of a letter from Suhail, in breach of solicitor-client privilege, the prosecutorial process should be rendered invalid.

He also asked for the AGC team to be disqualified.

CNA reported that the court dismissed an application for review of the case on Oct. 16, and warned of sanctions for abuse of court process if such applications were made without reasonable basis.

The dismissal of the application does not mean that Suhail's execution will be carried out, however.

In spite of the Criminal Motion being dismissed, M Ravi said on Facebook that "this is not the end but the beginning".

This is because the court had yet to decide on a constitutional challenge filed in the same case.

Comments from judges about applications for review

While dismissing the application, Judge of Appeal Andrew Phang said that there was insufficient material provided, and stressed that the review process should not be invoked lightly, according to CNA.

CNA also quoted Phang saying that the judges "take this opportunity to reiterate that this is not the appropriate way to raise such issues before the court," and that M Ravi's submissions had an "emotive quality", even while courts were "bound to deal with such matters only on established legal principles."

Execution previously scheduled for Sep. 18

Suhail, a Singaporean, was originally scheduled to hang on Friday, Sep. 18.

Following applications filed by M Ravi, Suhail had his execution put on hold while the courts decided on those applications.

M Ravi had taken on Suhail's case pro bono after learning of his situation in Sep. this year.

He said in an Oct. 15 Facebook post that he would also be reviewing letters and files from eight other inmates on death row.

He added that if he took on their cases, he would be representing a total of 21 individuals who are "facing imminent execution".

Summary of developments in Suhail's case

Suhail was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death, in a judgment dated Jan. 26, 2016.

An appeal against this judgment was unsuccessful, according to the website of international nonprofit organisation Human Rights Watch.

This means that Suhail would no longer be able to appeal against his initial conviction and sentence.

However, M Ravi filed a judicial review application on Sep. 16, saying that Suhail's execution went against his constitutional rights.

That application was heard in the High Court on Sep. 17, and dismissed.

A further appeal was made to the Court of Appeal to overrule the High Court's Sep. 17 decision to dismiss the judicial review application.

On Sep. 22, M. Ravi referred to a letter from Suhail to his former lawyer that the Prisons copied to the AGC, saying that this breached solicitor-client privilege, and asked the Court of Appeal to disqualify the AGC team.

While a Criminal Motion has been dismissed today, Oct. 16, the appeal for judicial review is still pending before the courts, and will be heard on Oct. 23, according to M Ravi.

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Top image via M Ravi on Facebook and by Sulaiman Daud.