SINGAPORE: The Court of Appeal on Monday dismissed appeals by social activist Jolovan Wham and opposition politician John Tan against theirThis means that Tan, who was re-elected into the Singapore Democratic Party's Central Executive Committee last October, cannot contest the next General Election.
After the Attorney-General's Chambers commenced contempt proceedings against Wham, Tan published a post saying that"by charging Jolovan for scandalising the judiciary, the AGC only confirms what he said was true".The two men were found guilty of contempt by scandalising the court and fined, but appealed against the conviction and sentence, as well as against the order to pay the AG costs for court proceedings.
Wham's post"objectively and plainly entails a direct attack on the independence and integrity of Singapore's judiciary", the court found. He said that Tan had taken down his post after the sentencing, and that anyone reading his post would form the view that he was merely"lashing out in anger". He argued that Tan was willing to accept a harsher sentence of several days' jail rather than bear a fine, since the jail term was under a year and would not disqualify him from taking part in elections., a sign that elections could be called soon.ON DISQUALIFICATION FOR ELECTIONS