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Former law prof seeking court order to get back PR status

SINGAPORE — Days after he announced a legal bid challenging his dismissal from the National University of Singapore (NUS), former law professor Tey Tsun Hang is again seeking the court’s intervention — this time over the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority’s (ICA) decision to terminate his and his daughter’s permanent residency status.

Tey Tsun Hang has been found guilty of corruption. Photo: Ernest Chua

Tey Tsun Hang has been found guilty of corruption. Photo: Ernest Chua

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SINGAPORE — Days after he announced a legal bid challenging his dismissal from the National University of Singapore (NUS), former law professor Tey Tsun Hang is again seeking the court’s intervention — this time over the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority’s (ICA) decision to terminate his and his daughter’s permanent residency status.

Mr Tey, whose conviction in a sex-for-grades case was overturned on appeal, also claimed that his application to renew his re-entry permit had been cancelled by the ICA even before he was formally charged in court.

He filed papers seeking the court’s permission for an ex parte hearing — for the judge to hear his case without the ICA present — on these matters, the day after filing similar papers for his sacking from NUS.

Responding to TODAY’s queries, an ICA spokesperson dismissed Mr Tey’s claims as “false and without basis”. “The ICA stands ready to defend our position in court,” she added.

Mr Tey, who is Malaysian and had been a permanent resident since January 1998, held a 10-year re-entry permit that was to expire on Jan 4 last year.

He claimed that when he applied to renew his and his daughter’s re-entry permit in 2012, the immigration authorities cancelled his application before he had been charged in court. This caused their permanent residency status to be revoked, he added.

Seeking a court order to quash the ICA’s cancellation, Mr Tey argued that the agency’s decision was made “arbitrarily and/or unreasonably”. It was also a “breach of natural justice”, he argued, because the presumption of his innocence was violated.

Mr Tey was accused of obtaining sex and gifts such as a Mont Blanc pen, an iPod Touch and tailored shirts from his former student in exchange for giving her favourable grades.

In May last year, he was sentenced to five months in prison and ordered to return the gifts.

After he served the jail term, Mr Tey succeeded in his appeal and was acquitted of all charges in February. But the judge noted then that while Mr Tey’s actions were not corrupt, his conduct was “morally reprehensible”.

A pre-trial conference for this case has been set for June 25.

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