SINGAPORE, Oct 22 — Human rights lawyer M. Ravi said he will not apologise to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) as requested and is instead demanding an apology from state prosecutors on behalf of his client Gobi Avedian and his family.
In a letter sent to the AGC yesterday — a copy of which he provided to TODAY — Mr Ravi said that his client Gobi, who was on death row for drug-trafficking charges, has instructed him to seek a public apology from the prosecutors for the "ordeal" Gobi has suffered as a result of the prosecutors’ conduct.
Regardless of whether there is an apology, the letter, which was addressed to Deputy Attorney-General Hri Kumar, also stated that Gobi and his family have given instructions for legal action to be taken against Kumar, Attorney-General Lucien Wong and the prosecutors who worked on his case.
The 32-year-old Malaysian escaped the gallows on Monday, after the Court of Appeal reviewed an earlier decision to give him the death penalty and reinstated his original High Court sentence of 15 years’ jail and 10 strokes of the cane.
On the same day, Ravi gave an interview with socio-political site The Online Citizen and said, among other things, that the prosecution had been “overzealous” in handling his client’s case.
Later on Monday, the AGC responded by saying Ravi’s claims were “categorically false” and that he had “sought to mischaracterise the reasons for the decision issued by the Court of Appeal.”
The AGC also sent a letter to Ravi on Tuesday, demanding that he apologise and unconditionally retract allegations he had made about the prosecutors in the video interview, which was posted on TOC’s Facebook page.
Ravi said in his letter to the AGC that their request for an apology and a retraction of the statement he made was “not only plainly without basis, but also insulting.”
This is because the AGC has treated Gobi’s life with “blatant disregard,” with his life saved by Ravi only at the 11th hour, read the letter.
In the letter, Ravi also refuted allegations by the AGC that the comments he made were false and that he has breached legal professional rules. — TODAY
