Today/CNA-Aug 3
A High Court judge on Wednesday (Aug 3) struck out a lawsuit filed by 24 death row inmates who claimed that their access to lawyers for appeals and reviews of their cases were obstructed. In a civil claim filed against the Attorney-General on Monday, the inmates argued that the power of the courts to order costs against defense lawyers made them afraid to take up the legal challenges. The inmates sought a declaration that the costs provisions were unconstitutional and therefore null, void and unlawful. They also sought damages for breach of the defendant’s statutory duty to allow “access to justice”. Under the Criminal Procedure Code, the Court of Appeal and the High Court can order costs to be paid by any party to any other party in a case, of such amount as the court thinks fit. Costs orders are generally justified only in cases where the court is satisfied that the proceedings are frivolous, vexatious or an abuse of process. The Attorney-General applied to strike out the inmates’ claim, arguing that this was in the interests of justice as the claim showed no reasonable course of action and was an abuse of process. In a judgment seen by CNA, Justice See said the inmates’ application contained “broad-brush and sweeping claims” for all but one of the claimants. Specifics were only given for the case of convicted drug trafficker Datchinamurthy Kataiah, and “even then, those facts are selectively self-serving and misleading”, he said. Datchinamurthy was sentenced to death in 2015, and granted a stay of execution after representing himself in judicial review proceedings in April. Read more at: https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/high-court-strikes-out-lawsuit-24-death-row-inmates-who-claim-access-lawyers-obstructed-1960841
