The case of Parti Liyani must fall to someone from the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) who has “absolutely no links” to Changi Airport Group (CAG) chairman Liew Mun Leong, nor perceived links, said the Peoples Voice (PV) party leader Lim Tean on Tuesday (8 Sept).
Back in 2016, Mr Liew accused his former Indonesian domestic worker, Parti Liyani – who had worked for the Liew household for nine years – of stealing S$34,000 worth of items from him and his family, two days after abruptly terminating her employment and sent her back to Indonesia.
Ms Parti was sentenced to 26 months’ jail in March 2019 after she was found guilty in a district court, though she denied the allegations and claimed that the items had been discarded by the Liew family and were meant to be recycled or belonged to her.
The sentence was then overturned by Justice Chan Seng Onn on last Friday (4 Sept), who ruled that the district court had failed to consider several points including the credibility of the testimony of Mr Liew’s son, Karl Liew.
Justice Chan finds the convictions against Ms Parti are “unsafe” and thus acquitted her of all the charges, adding that the Liew household had an “improper motive” in accusing her of theft back in 2016.
The AGC on Sunday (6 Sept) said that it will study the judgment to assess what further actions should be taken, in light of Justice Chan’s findings.
Following that, Mr Lim shared a photo of CapitaLand’s board of directors on Facebook today – that he received from “various sources” via Whatsapp – which shows that the Attorney-General Lucien Wong and Mr Liew were former directors of CapitaLand.
Mr Liew had left CapitaLand in 2012 and is currently the Chairman of Changi Airport Group.
Though Mr Lim acknowledged that Mr Wong is no longer a director of CapitaLand, he stressed that Mr Wong “must recuse himself from involvement on any decision making” with regards to the case of Ms Parti.
“The task must fall to a person in the Attorney-General’s Chambers who has absolutely no links to the Liews or even perceived links,” he remarked.
“For public confidence to be maintained in our criminal justice system, no whiff of any conflict of interest can be tolerated. The oft-quoted aphorism- Not Only Must Justice Be Done, It Must Also Be Seen To Be Done is never more true than in this case.”
Mr Wong was reappointed as Attorney-General for a second term in January this year, despite it raised questions concerning a potential conflict of interest as he was previously the personal lawyer of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Describing the acquittal of Ms Parti as “sad reading” on the state of Singapore’s prosecutorial system, Mr Lim noted that the case must be debated in Parliament.
“The Attorney-General’s Chambers have said that they are studying the judgment to see if further action needs to be taken. Having now read the judgment in full, I would suggest that not only is action needed, it must be meted out swiftly! Justice Chan’s judgment is admirably clear and leaves no stones unturned!” he wrote.
Mr Lim continued, “Parliament must debate the many issues which this case has thrown up at its next sitting.”