Defiant author vows: ‘I will not apologize’

SINGAPORE: Former British Weekly columnist Alan Shadrake, who has been cited for contempt of court by Singapore’s Attorney General, has said that he will not apologise to the court and will fight on with the case.

Shadrake’s been brought to court for allegedly making and publishing contemptuous statements on the independence of the Singapore judiciary in the book Once  A Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock, which he launched in the city state earlier this month.

Meanwhile the contempt hearing which was to take place Friday (July 30th) was adjourned for three weeks to give the author time to file an affidavit and for the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) to respond to it.

Shadrake’s lawyer M Ravi had asked for a month’s adjournment as he had wanted more time to consult various agencies which had been mentioned in Shadrake’s book if they too wanted to file affidavits and give evidence.

However Justice Quentin Loh ruled that he would grant a two week adjournment for Shadrake to file his affidavit and a further week for the AGC to respond.

And if any other agencies want to file affidavits, the matter would have to referred to the Judge first.

At the outset of the hearing Senior Counsel David Chong acting for AGC, reminded the media that it too would be liable for contempt if paragraphs being complained of in this case were repeated by them.

Speaking exclusively to the British Weekly on Monday, Shadrake said that he had been given to believe that if he apologized to the nation of Singapore, the charges could be dropped.  But he added that he had ‘no intention’ of apologizing, and instead intended to ‘counter attack’.

Complicating the issue is that Shadrake was recently diagnosed with a heart condition and hyper-tension, a health problem that according to Shadrake’s cardiologist, may have been worsened  by strenous  questioning at the hands of the Singapore CID over the past two weeks.