Dr Chee Soon Juan’s trial for speaking in public will commence tomorrow, 14 Jul 08. This is the third in a series of eight charges which the Government is pursuing. Dr Chee was selling the SDP’s newspaper The New Democrat during the election period in 2006.
It is the same issue that carried the article on the National Kidney Foundation for which the party was sued by Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Lee Hsien Loong for defamation.
The SDP secretary-general was convicted in 2006 on the first charge and served a four-week prison sentence. He was convicted on the second charge in May this year and is awaiting the appeal which is pending.
The AG’s Chambers (AGC) had offered to drop the remaining six charges if Dr Chee pleaded guilty to them. But Dr Chee refused and is now facing a series of trials. In the previous hearing, District Court Judge Jasvender Kaur queried the prosecution why they were not proceeding with all the charges at one go instead of doing them one at a time.
The AGC then decided to follow Judge Kaur’s suggestion and proceed with all the charges at one go. But it later reversed its position and is now reverting to prosecuting Dr Chee with one charge at a time.
Mr Yap Keng Ho is the co-defendant.