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Lawyer M Ravi charged with criminal defamation of Law Minister K Shanmugam in Facebook post

SINGAPORE — Human rights lawyer M Ravi was charged on Wednesday (Dec 16) with criminally defaming Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam in a Facebook post last month.

Lawyer M Ravi at the State Courts on Dec 16, 2020.

Lawyer M Ravi at the State Courts on Dec 16, 2020.

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SINGAPORE — Human rights lawyer M Ravi was charged on Wednesday (Dec 16) with criminally defaming Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam in a Facebook post last month.

Ravi had claimed that fellow lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam, who briefly employed Ravi when he was suspended from practising law in 2015, had said that Mr Shanmugam “wields influence over Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon”.

In the Nov 6 Facebook post, he alleged that Mr Thuraisingam had also said Mr Shanmugam “calls the shot and controlls (sic) Sundaresh Menon”.

Ravi, 51, faces one count of criminal defamation. If convicted, he could be jailed for up to two years or fined, or both.

Mr Thuraisingam wrote a letter to Mr Shanmugam on the same day Ravi's Facebook post was published, stating that "(t)here is absolutely no truth whatsoever" to the allegations.

Ravi had made the same allegations in June 2017, Mr Thuraisingam said, adding that the other lawyer never produced any supporting “records” that he claimed to have. No police action was taken at the time.

On Nov 8, the police announced that they were investigating Ravi for criminal defamation over his latest post. The public prosecutor had issued an order for the probe under the Criminal Procedure Code.

To successfully prosecute someone for the offence, it must be proven that the accused person intended to harm the subject’s reputation, or had reason to believe the subject’s reputation would be harmed.

Following the police announcement, Ravi posted on Facebook that he was suing the Singapore Police Force, Mediacorp and Singapore Press Holdings for defamation. 

He said that investigations were based on a “stale complaint” and is seeking more than S$250,000 in damages.

On Wednesday, Ravi said he had sent representations to the Attorney-General’s Chambers on Monday. Deputy Public Prosecutors Kumaresan Gohulabalan and Samuel Yap appeared for the prosecution.

Ravi will return to court for a pre-trial conference on Jan 6 next year.

In response to TODAY’s queries, a spokesperson for the Law Society of Singapore said that it will “await the outcome of the criminal prosecution and consider its appropriate course of action in due course”.

Ravi is currently a solicitor with Carson Law Chambers and is representing several death-row inmates in Singapore. 

In March, the police said that they were investigating him and the chief editor of socio-political website The Online Citizen (TOC) for contempt of court. This was over an article about the extradition of a Singaporean to Malaysia.

In October, the Attorney-General’s Chambers filed a disciplinary complaint against him over several allegations he made in a video interview about his client, who had just escaped the gallows for drug trafficking.

During the interview he gave to TOC, Ravi said that the state had been “overzealous in this prosecution” that led to his client’s initial death sentence.

He is also defending a man charged with criminal defamation. Daniel De Costa Augustin, along with the TOC editor, went on trial last month for alleging there was corruption in the Cabinet.

UNDERWENT COURT-ORDERED TREATMENT

Ravi, whose full name is Ravi Madasamy, received his practising certificate with conditions in July last year after being barred for four years.

He suffers from bipolar disorder, punctuated by episodes of mania and depression. 

In January 2018, he was ordered to undergo 18 months of psychiatric treatment in lieu of jail time for offences that included assaulting fellow lawyer and ex-colleague Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss. 

He had also acted out in a series of incidents such as using abusive language on others at Chinatown’s Sri Mariamman Temple on two occasions.

After his practising certificate was reinstated, he told TODAY in an interview that he had sought help to curb his relapses and has learned to recognise triggers. He also emphasised that those with bipolar disorder are “sadly, grossly misunderstood and still stigmatised today”. 

 

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M Ravi defamation K Shanmugam

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