SINGAPORE — The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) has flagged possible contempt of court proceedings against some of those involved in a failed last-ditch plea for the life of convicted drug trafficker Nagaethran K Dharmalingam, who was hanged on Wednesday (April 27).
In a statement on Wednesday, the AGC said individuals and groups both here and abroad have “repeated false allegations” that Nagaethran's mother had put forward about Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon.
These false statements could amount to contempt of court and if so, AGC would “take appropriate action to protect the administration of justice”, the public prosecutor’s office added.
For example, the correspondence email address provided by Nagaenthran’s mother, Madam Panchalai Supermaniam, did not appear to be her own, and ostensibly belonged to freelance journalist and death-penalty activist Kirsten Han.
Mdm Panchalai had made the allegations in question — that Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon should not have presided over the case, because he was Attorney-General when Nagaenthran, a Malaysian national, was prosecuted — in an affidavit filed on Monday.
The Court of Appeal dismissed her application on Tuesday afternoon. Earlier on March 29, the court had also rejected Nagaenthran’s bid to be examined by psychiatrists, calling his last-ditch appeals a “blatant and egregious” abuse of court processes.
His defence counsel contended that Nagaenthran is intellectually disabled and thus should not be executed in...
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