S'pore human rights lawyer jailed 21 days for contempt of court

The Singapore High Court yesterday sentenced suspended lawyer M Ravi to 21 days in jail for contempt of court.

He is also ordered to pay the Attorney-General’s Chambers costs of S$10,000 (RM34,576).

The Straits Times reported that Ravi was found guilty of nine instances of contempt on March 31, 2023.

This is over a series of alleged acts of contempt before two different judges in separate courtroom incidents in November 2021.

One of the cases involved an exchange with a judge during a criminal hearing of Magendran Muniandy, a Malaysian, who was accused of forging various documents.

The other incident involved Justice Audrey Lim when he was representing bus driver Chua Qwong Meng. He accused both judges of being biased.

In his defence, Ravi (above), who was unrepresented during his sentencing, said that he was suffering a relapse of his bipolar disorder at the time. He admitted that he had forgotten “to take medications on some days”.

Medication regime

Justice Hoo Sheau Peng, who sentenced him, said that the relapse did not significantly impair his ability to exercise self-control and restraint.

“Despite being aware of his mental condition, Ravi did little to guard against or manage the effects of his bipolar disorder while discharging his duties and responsibilities as a lawyer. In particular, Ravi was non-compliant with his medication regime,” she was quoted as saying.

READ MORE: M Ravi leads death penalty fight in Singapore

Taking to Facebook, Ravi said that he would not appeal the decision, and would proceed to serve the sentence.

“The High Court has just sentenced me to 21 days in prison for contempt of court. I feel the sentence is very harsh given the previous cases that I have cited. I will also have to pay the AGC costs of S$10,000 which I have to raise later.

“I’ve decided not to appeal as I have to pay S$20,000 as security of costs to the AGC if I do. I will proceed to serve the sentence immediately knowing that history will be on my side,” he said.

The lawyer, who was involved in numerous cases involving Malaysians, was slapped with a five-year suspension by the Singapore courts earlier this year for making "baseless and grave" allegations against the republic's attorney-general, prosecutors, and the Singapore Law Society.

Ravi was known to have assisted in cases involving drug mules on death row in Singapore, including Malaysians such as Nagaenthran Dharmalingam who was sentenced to death for trying to smuggle 42.72g of heroin into Singapore in 2009.

Nagaenthran, 34, was executed on April 27 last year.

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