There must be a better way to conduct cases involving women who are possibly victims of sexual assault than to put them through unacceptable cross-examination in court, Law Minister K. Shanmugam said in a Facebook post yesterday.
Mr Shanmugam, who is also Home Affairs Minister, was referring to the conduct of lawyer Edmund Wong Sin Yee, who was reprimanded by a district judge for focusing on the breast size of a molest victim in court.
Mr Shanmugam added links to a number of articles on the case, including The New Paper’s.
He said the lawyer’s “theory was that only attractive women get molested” and added: “They don’t (as far as I know) teach that in law school.”
Strongly criticising the lawyer, he wrote that women who are victims of sexual assault are “seen as fair game in court for cross-examination”.
“Their past, sexual history etc. are looked into, to make the suggestion of looseness and therefore consent.”
He also referred to the case of Brock Turner, a former student of Stanford University in the US, who was given six months’ jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious, intoxicated victim in January last year.
Mr Shanmugam said the hearing put the victim through unacceptable examination. “This happens in many places in the world, with court processes which, in my view, are not sufficiently sensitive to what victims have gone through.
“The counter argument that there could be a frame up, and therefore the allegations should be thoroughly examined, is also true. But there must be a better way to do this.”
He added that he had asked officials earlier this year to consider changes to the way investigations and trials are conducted, when women are the alleged victims.
“And I have asked them to also consult NGOs (non-governmental organisations), others, including organisations seeking to protect women’s interests,” he wrote.
Mr Shanmugam also commented yesterday on Indonesia foiling a terrorist plot to launch a rocket attack on Singapore from Batam.
“This is the nature of things to come… it’s not going to go away,” he told reporters before a community event.
“There are different types of plans being hatched…”
He listed three threats. First, from those based outside, with the means to attack Singapore from beyond its borders.
Second, there are 200 million people coming through Singapore’s borders every year, a risk despite the “great job” done by the immigration authorities.
Third, home-grown radicalised individuals pose a danger. “You can use knives, vehicles, and there are always people who believe that by doing these things, you are serving some higher cause,” he said.
But Singapore has “zero tolerance” for these threats and is constantly working with its regional partners to fight terrorism, he said.
This article was first published on Aug 7, 2016.
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