COMMENT: Legal counsel is essential to justice

Kirsten Han is a Singaporean blogger, journalist and filmmaker. She is also involved in the We Believe in Second Chances campaign for the abolishment of the death penalty. A social media junkie, she tweets at @kixes. The views expressed are her own.

Last week the Court of Appeal said that there is no legal requirement for the police to allow an arrested individual access to his or her lawyer within 48 hours. Following a previous judgement, the police only have to allow the person access to legal counsel within a “reasonable time”.

But there is no definition of what the court means by a “reasonable time”.

According to Singapore’s law, an individual has to be charged in court 48 hours after arrest, or the police will have to explain to a judge why they need to continue to detain that individual without charge. This means that you could be arrested and charged even before you see your lawyer.

We have seen this in action this week. Five teenagers on Wednesday were sitting in remand at Tanglin Police Division. They had been accused of the graffiti spray-painted on the rooftop of a HDB block in Toa Payoh, and charged in court for vandalism. Police investigations were ongoing to build a case against them. Yet Choo Zheng Xi, the lawyer for one of the boys, was denied access to his client, and had to file an application in court before he was allowed to see his client.

Adequate and immediate access to legal counsel is important. A person under arrest, frightened, confused and unaware of his or her rights, might say all sorts of incriminating things in police custody without knowing how this would affect his or her case in court. He or she might even feel threatened or coerced by investigators into saying certain things. If this happens, it would be extremely difficult for a lawyer to help his or her client by the time they appear in court.

One could opt to remain silent and make no statement at all, but according to the Law Society’s website, “if you do so, there is a danger that the Judge may think you have subsequently made up your defence and decide not to believe you.”

It makes sense that the police should be able to carry out investigations efficiently. But that should not come at the expense of human rights, and legal counsel is important during questioning before or after an arrest. This doesn’t just benefit the individual who has been arrested or who is being questioned; it also protects the police from accusations of abuse, brutality or coercion while a suspect is in custody. Such a rights-based approach can help to deepen public trust in the institution and bolster the image of the police force.

It is easy to imagine that all this is irrelevant to everyday life; after all, one merely needs to avoid getting into trouble with the police, right?

But one never knows how things might turn out; one doesn’t have to be a criminal to cross paths with the police during their investigations. In such situations one shouldn’t seek to hinder investigations, but it is also crucial to know that one has the right to seek legal counsel and advice, or to remain silent without the possibility of it adversely affecting you at a later date.