Wednesday, 16 Dec 2020 12:53 PM MYT
Lawyer M Ravi at Singapore State Courts on December 16, 2020. TODAY pic
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SINGAPORE, Dec 16 Human rights lawyer M. Ravi was charged today 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 Shanmugam “wields influence over Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon.”
In the November 6 Facebook post, he alleged that Thuraisingam had also said Shanmugam “calls the shot and controlls (sic) Sundaresh Menon.”
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Singapore Lawyer M Ravi was charged in court on Wednesday (Dec 16) with criminal defamation of Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam.
Ravi, 51, is accused of defaming Mr Shanmugam by alleging that the minister had claimed that he wields influence over and controls Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon.
The allegations were made in a Facebook post on Nov 6, with Ravi claiming that he had heard them from fellow lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam.
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However, in a post on his own Facebook page the same day, Mr Thuraisingam, a prominent criminal defence lawyer who has represented several people accused of murder and secured the acquittal of a doctor accused of rape, called Ravi’s Facebook post “false and completely untrue”.
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Singapore Lawyer M Ravi sought help from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Monday (Dec 14) regarding the case of a Singaporean convicted of drug trafficking and facing imminent execution by shooting in China.
In an update on Facebook, Mr Ravi wrote that his team from Carson Law Chambers has made frantic efforts in China to get a Chinese lawyer to represent the Singaporean, 35-year-old Azlinda.
“We have just served our legal notice on Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their immediate participation and cooperation
,” he added.
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In his letter to the MFA, Mr Ravi said Azlinda had been sentenced to death for drug trafficking and was currently appealing that her sentence be reviewed by the Guangdong High Court.