Lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam fined $6,000 for contempt of court over Facebook post: report
Lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam was fined $6,000 on Monday (7 August) after he alleged that judges were preoccupied with gaining wealth and ignoring the law in a Facebook post published before a client of his was hanged for drug trafficking.
Thuraisingam made the post the night before his client Muhammad Ridzuan Mohd Ali was to be hanged on 19 May for the offence, according to a report by the Straits Times.
On 26 May, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) filed an application over Thuraisingam’s post. It also lodged a complaint with the Law Society.
Senior State Counsel Hui Choon Kuen had asked for a $10,000 fine, saying that Thuraisingam wrote that judges were “like rats” who cared only about accumulating wealth. Hui added that as Ridzuan’s lawyer, Thuraisingam’s post carried more authority than an ordinary citizen, and that the post had a wide reach.
The post was shared almost 360 times before Thuraisingam removed it and posted a public apology on 5 June.
Thuraisingam’s lawyer, Senior Counsel Ang Cheng Hock, said his client was not in the right frame of mind when he made the post, pointing out that Ridzuan was Thuraisingam’s fourth client who was sentenced to hang.
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