The British author Alan Shadrake is today facing a possible prison sentence after a court in Singapore convicted him of challenging the integrity of the city state's judiciary in a book criticising its use of the death penalty.
Shadrake faces a custodial sentence or a fine – or both – for contempt of court when Singapore's high court sentences him next week.
The Singapore constitution does not specify a maximum penalty for the crime, according to reports, although prosecutors are reported to have demanded a prison sentence of between three and six months and an unspecified fine.
The judge, Quentin Loh, said he was giving 75-year-old Shadrake "a final opportunity to make amends".
The author, who has refused to apologise, said after the ruling that he would "work out how to do this and satisfy the court".
The case has cast further doubt on Singapore's commitment to freedom of expression. Shadrake's lawyer, M Ravi, insisted his client had not intended to scandalise the conservative state's "hypersensitive" judiciary, adding that comments critical of the criminal justice system were "fair criticism".
The case was brought in response to Shadrake's book, Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore's Justice in the Dock, which accuses courts of bowing to diplomatic and economic pressure in deciding how to dispense justice.
It also accuses them of favouring the wealthy and abusing the law to suppress political opponents.
The book includes a profile of a former chief executioner and interviews with human rights activists, lawyers and former police officers.
According to Amnesty International, Singapore, with a population of five million, has one of the world's highest per capita execution rates, having put more than 400 people to death over the past two decades.
Loh said: "This is a case about someone who says, among other things, the judges in Singapore are not impartial ... and are influenced by political and economic situations and biased against the weak and the poor."
Last month, Singapore's attorney general's office described comments in Shadrake's book as "especially pernicious", adding that they "cannot possibly come within any reasonable notion of fair criticism".
The book, which was published in Malaysia, where Shadrake is based, is reportedly not banned in Singapore, but sellers and distributors will have to seek legal advice before releasing it.
Shadrake, whose passport has been confiscated by the authorities, was released on bail. He was arrested in July while promoting the book in Singapore, and is also being investigated for possible criminal defamation – a crime carrying a prison sentence of up to two years.
Alan Shadrake outside the High Court yesterday. His book criticises the death penalty in Singapore A British ...
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