By Parti Liyani, a former domestic worker who was acquitted of four theft charges by the High Court in September, has filed a complaint on 3 July against a number of officers at Tanglin Police Division over their conduct in handling the investigations and trial against her.
In a statement published on Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) on Wednesday (4 Nov), Ms Parti requested that the Singapore Police Force Internal Affairs Office conduct an inquiry on these officers based on their conduct against her.
This complaint by Ms Parti is an addition to another complaint filed by her to seek disciplinary proceedings against the prosecutors who dealt with her case. The two Deputy public prosecutors listed in her case are Tan Wee Hao and Tan Yanying, both of whom are represented by AGC’s Kristy Tan Ruyan, Jeyendran Jeyapal, and Jocelyn Teo Meng Hui.
According to Ms Parti’s statement against the police officers, there are number of issues that she has raised.
The first is a possible case of tampering with evidence in Court as an attempt to frame her of being untruthful to the Court.
“During my cross-examination, when the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) asked the police officer to hand me the Gerald Genta watch, my lawyer observed that the police officer started shaking the watch while it was in his hand. I was then asked if the watch was working,” the Indonesian national explained.
“At that point, and as the watch was passed around the Courtroom, its hands were moving. But during re-examination when my lawyer specifically asked the police officer not to shake the watch, the watch hands did not move at all,” she added.
The second concern that Ms Parti addressed in her report was that four of her statements were recorded without a Bahasa Indonesia-speaking interpreter.
She continued, “During these same interviews, I was not allowed to physically view the allegedly stolen item.”
If that’s not all, Ms Parti also claimed that there were “delays in the securing of evidence that raised significant concerns over the integrity of the evidence” that was used to charge her.
Lastly, she noted that the investigating officer also gave wrong instructions to the police crime scene specialist. This resulted in a “misleading sketch that inaccurately depicted three boxes of allegedly stolen items at that material time”.
The former Indonesian domestic worker went on to say that she is waiting for an update on her request to look into the conduct of these police officers.
Ms Parti revealed that her intention to file the complaints – both against the police officers and prosecutors – was to make improvements across the country’s criminal justice system, and she is glad that many agencies have voice their intention to “rectify the issues illustrated” by her case.
“What happened to me may also happen to many other disadvantaged people. I hope that the review based on my complaint may contribute to fully and transparently addressing the broader issues, and improving the fairness of the criminal justice system for all,” she remarked.