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From Judge to
DPP to Judge again
Judge Eddy Tham
Tong Kong
http://www.subcourts.gov.sg/
Judge
Tham graduated from the National University of Singapore, with a
Bachelor of Laws Degree in 1988.
Thereafter, he joined
the Singapore Legal Service and was posted to the Subordinate
Courts, where he served as a Magistrate from 1988 to
1992.
Subsequently, Judge Tham served as an Assistant
Registrar in the Supreme Court from 1992 to 1993, and as a
District Judge in the Subordinate Courts from 1993 to 2001.
In
1993, he obtained a postgraduate scholarship from the Legal
Service to pursue the course on Master of Laws from the
University College of London, United Kingdom.
He was
posted to the Attorney General’s Chambers as a Deputy
Public Prosecutor/State Counsel in 2001, where he has served to
date.
Judge Tham has assumed office today, 1 September
2006.
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Media
Release: Defendants boycott trial
8 Nov 06
We,
the Defendants, wish to make the following statement:
Under
Article 12 of Republic of Singapore Constitution, citizens are
entitled to a fair trial and equal treatment under the law. In
this trial you, Judge Eddy Tham, have ruled on dozens of
occasions that our questions to Prosecution witnesses irrelevant.
This has prevented us from adducing evidence to establish our
defence on two fronts:
One, that the police have acted at
the behest of the PAP to victimize us for our election activity
on 22 April 2006. By preventing us from cross-examining the
police witnesses on this matter, we are unable to show that we
have been discriminated against and victimized by the PAP.
Two,
that the police have no intention to grant a permit on any
occasion for outdoors political speeches. Thus we cannot be
accused of not having a permit. By disallowing our questions to
elicit information from the police about this matter, the Judge
has effectively undermined our defence and passed a guilty
verdict.
These and other decisions and actions by Judge
Eddy Tham clearly show that we are not receiving a fair trial. We
have no reason to expect that an appeal will make any
difference.
In the circumstances, we are left with no
choice but to boycott the rest of the trial. We will therefore
not participate in the remainder of the proceedings and will
remain silent to protest our treatment in this
Court.
Signed,
Gandhi Ambalam
Chee Soon Juan
Yap
Keng Ho
8 November 2006
This statement was read
out by Mr Gandhi Ambalam in court today.
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