On 24.Jun.2009 about 1000hr, in court 19 for the matter of WB-IMF 2006 Speakers Cornored District Judge Toh Yong Chong issued warrant of arrest for Dr. Chee Soon Juan with bail condition set S$1000 with 1 surity.
Dr. Chee is currently attending his father in law's funeral in Taiwan.
The late father in law (Mr. Huang) of Dr. Chee lived in Taiwan, Dr. Chee had not been able to see him for years already as the famiLEE LEEgime had detained his passport since. The late Mr. Huang's health had not been so good, and Mrs Chee had been flying back & forth recently with children to see their grand father who was hospitalized in Taiwan with terminal ailment. Dr Chee was unable to travel to see his father in law due to famiLEE LEEgime's OA & criminal court trials.
The condition of late Mr. Huang was bad the last few weeks and hospital had adviced the family to prepare for the untowards. During the recent Singapore school holidays, I heard Mrs Chee & 3 children went to Taiwan to visit Mr. Huang, and then returned. But on arriving back to Singapore Mrs Chee had to rush back to Taiwan immediately again, as the bad news came that her father was quickly fading away.
Dr. Chee had to apply for OA's permission to travel, and then sort same permission from distrct court before he could do the trip and bring his 3 children to Taiwan to meet his wife & meet his father in law for the final time before he pass. OA finally gave back Dr. Chee's passport but only for this particular trip and reason, but only then to find out that District Judge Toh Yong Chong was overseas for about a week. Writting & faxing to the court was not helpful, Dr. Chee went to court to try to see Duty Registrar of District Court & the senior judge Liew Thaim Leng, accordingly they refuesed to see Dr. Chee & had the court officers informed Dr. Chee that District Judge Toh was the only one that could decide.
However, due to the family's tickets' restriction (costing thousands for the series of trips related to hospitalization & passing of late Mr. Huang), the only chance for Dr. Chee to get on flight was Sunday 20 or otherwise too many days later which late Mr. Huang was not expected to be able to sustain until then. District Judge Toh Yong Chong was only expected back on Monday 21, while the trial was scheduled Wedesday 24.Jun.2009 till 3.July.2009 for WB-IMF matter.
At that time, it was NOT expected that District Judge Toh Yong Chong will deny Dr. Chee's written application to change date of trial to allow him to attend to his dying father in law. So Dr. Chee took his children to Taiwan on Sunday. However, after District Judge Toh Yong Chong returned to Singapore on Monday, surprisingly his office sent a fax reply disallowing the application. At the short notice, it was impossible to book Dr. Chee on any flight back before Wedesday.
On the morning of Wedesday, District Judge Toh Yong Chong issued the warrant of arrest without the prosecution making any such application, and after Miss Chee Siok Chin gave detailed explaination of the difficult situation facing a dying senior citizen and a family with 3 children having to fly many expensive trips through extremely difficult booking conditions. Dr. Chee's ticket was issued using frequent flyer milage point with portion of cash top-up, that kind of ticket has lowest priority for seat booking, and could not be even put on waiting list.
Elder Mr. Huang past away yesterday (Thurday), and this morning (Friday), after being informed of the death of Mr. Huang in court, District Judge Toh Yong Chong, still insisted to had the Warrant of Arrest Stand, and he left the court session in hurry, did not appear to be interested at all as the other defendents were asking for the reason of this Warrant of Arrest, and Mr. Gandhi and applied for it to be set aside. The judge did not appear to be intereted to hear anything.
The judge did not say that there was any thing insatisfactory about the application's reasons or procedure. There is no reason indicating that Dr. Chee was delibrately delaying the trial or absconding from Singapore jurisdiction. What is the basis of issuing this Warrant to Arrest Dr. Chee when the Prosecutors were not making such application at all?
The prosecutor was only asking for medical certificate to be faxed, and the duration of Dr. Chee's absent, and seeked clearification weather is Dr. Chee expected to apply for further delays in the event his father in law as pronouced dead by Taiwanese doctors. That's all the prosecutor was saying in court so far. They were not accused Dr. Chee for delibrately causing delays, nor suspect that he was absconding from famiLEE LEEgime's claws.
There is clearly no intention of the issued warrant to serve the purpose of bringing Dr. Chee back to court before the judge ASAP, because there was no order to arrange for extradiction from Taiwan, and more importantly, the Warrant
WAS ISSUED WITH BAIL CONDITION. That means if mata managed to arrest Dr. Chee he will only be bailed out instead of being brought back to court ASAP.
It appears then the warrant was only issued to inconviniece and harass Dr. Chee, to have him arrested at the airport when he returned and then bailed out afterwards. There were 2 mentionings fixed on Wedesday, for today (Friday) & next Tuesday (30.Jun.2009) which appear only to have all the other defendents returning to court to only waste time. Dr. Chee is not represented by any council in this matter, and none of the other defendents is in the capacity to act for Dr. Chee in his absent. Court had already been informed that funeral arrangements will not be over until early July, and it is not possible for Dr. Chee to return until then. So what good will 2 extra mentionings do?
In another matter another district judge had granted time for Mr. Gandhi to be away for his cousin's funeral. In yet another matter on the morning which late Mr. JBJ past, another district judge also granted the morning off for defendents to rush to Singapore Casket, even though none of us are directly related to Mr. JBJ.
It is most unusual for trial not permited to be rescheduled in this current situation faced by Dr. Chee. It is even more amazing that such a Warrant of Arrest be issued this way under the present scenario. What purpose does it serve?
On Wednesday 24.Jun.2009 on which Warrant was issued, the SPH reporter was sitting in the court. But NOT A SINGLE WORD had been written in 154th to report this, after 2 days. Does that invite a question from the international community and the public?
Sammyboy.Com Thread
