Ex-maid Parti Liyani lays out complaints against police officers handling her case, alleges ‘possible tampering’ of evidence during trial

• ​Ms Parti Liyani laid out her complaints just hours before Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam is to deliver a ministerial statement on her case
• She claimed that she was not allowed to physically view the allegedly stolen items when she was interviewed 
• She also took issue with the delays in securing evidence by the police

SINGAPORE — Former domestic worker Parti Liyani, who was recently acquitted of theft in a high-profile case, on Wednesday (Nov 4) laid out the complaints she had against the police officers who handled her case, including “possible tampering” of evidence during the trial.

Ms Parti, 46, who used to work for former Changi Airport Group chairman Liew Mun Leong, added that she is still waiting for a substantive update on her request for a review of the officers’ conduct, which she had made in July.

On Wednesday morning, she set out her complaints against the officers in a statement, which was released on the website of migrant rights group Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics — just hours before Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam is to deliver a ministerial statement on her case in Parliament. 

POSSIBLE TAMPERING OF EVIDENCE

She alleged that there was possible tampering of evidence in court, and this was done in an attempt to cast her as untruthful.

She said that during her cross-examination, her lawyer had observed that the police officer had shaken the Gerald Genta watch that Ms Parti was accused of stealing, before handing it to her at the request of the deputy public prosecutor.

Thereafter, Ms Parti was asked if the watch was working.

At this point, when the watch was being passed around the courtroom, the hands of the watch were moving.

But when Ms Parti was later re-examined by her lawyer, he specifically asked the police officer to not shake the watch. The watch hands did not move then, she noted.

LANGUAGE BARRIERS

Four of the statements that were taken from her by the police were done without a Bahasa Indonesia-speaking interpreter, Ms Parti said. These statements were taken in Malay instead.

Ms Parti, who is Indonesian, claimed that during these interviews, she was also not allowed to physically view the items that she was accused of stealing.

DELAYS IN SECURING EVIDENCE

Ms Parti also took issue with the delays in securing evidence by the police. 

In his judgement, Justice Chan Seng Onn had found that the police had delayed visiting the crime scene and seizing the items.

Though the Liew family had made the police report on Oct 30, 2016, the investigating officer only viewed the crime scene five weeks later on Dec 3, 2016.

“(This) raised significant concerns over the integrity of the evidence that was used to charge me,” she said.

‘MISLEADING SKETCH’

Ms Parti alleged that there were also wrong instructions given to the police crime scene specialist by the investigating officer, and this led to a misleading sketch that inaccurately depicted three boxes of allegedly stolen material at the time.

She said: “I am glad to know that the various agencies involved in my case have stated their intention to rectify the issues illustrated by my case and to make improvements across the criminal justice system.

“That was my intent in filing the complaint against the police officers, and also when I made the application for an inquiry into the conduct of the deputy public prosecutors in my case.”

Ms Parti said that she had submitted her complaint against several officers from the Tanglin Police Division on July 4. 

She then asked the Internal Affairs Office of the Singapore Police Force to conduct an inquiry into the officers’ conduct during the course of the investigations and trial.