Singapore released on bail Tuesday a British author arrested two days earlier as part of a criminal defamation investigation related to his book on the city-state's death penalty policy. Alan Shadrake, a 75-year old freelance journalist, posted $10,000 Singapore dollars ($7,250) bail, said his lawyer, M Ravi.
Police confiscated Shadrake's passport, interrogated him about the book and will question him further Tuesday, Ravi said.
Shadrake, author of Once a Jolly Hangman-Singapore Justice in the Dock, is being investigated for "criminal defamation" and "contempt of court".
“To hold the 75-year-old author of an investigative book who is in fragile health for nearly two days and at a secret location, is shocking and totally disproportionate," Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) had said earlier.
The book, which was published in Malaysia, includes interviews with a former chief executioner, lawyers and police officers. The authorities claim that Shadrake contested the impartiality of Singapore’s justice system, as well as the independence of some judges. As a result he also faces charges for alleged contempt of court. The prosecutor’s office declined to comment on the case when RSF got in touch by telephone.
The attorney-general's office is also seeking contempt of court charges against Shadrake because it claims statements in the book allegedly impugn the impartiality, integrity and independence of the judiciary. The contempt of court charges will be heard by a judge at the country's High Court on July 30.Criminal defamation carries a sentence of up to two years in jail, a fine, or both.
"If Singapore aspires to be a global media city, it needs to respect global human rights standards for freedom of expression," Donna Guest, the Asia Pacific deputy director at Amnesty International, said in a statement. "Singapore should get rid of both its criminal defamation laws and the death penalty."
Several Singapore citizens have confirmed that it is almost impossible to find the work in bookshops, even though it has not been officially banned. A government representative told the BBC that the government has the right to advise book shops not to stock it.
Elsewhere, the documentary-maker Martyn See told RSF that he had been obliged to delete from YouTube.com his film about former political prisoner, Lim Hock Siew. He received a letter from an official at the Media Development Authority threatening him with proceedings under Article 35 of the Films Act if he did not pull the documentary from YouTube and his personal website before July 14. "Two of my films are now banned," said See.
The film deemed to be contrary to the "public interest" was posted online by other Internet users: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nEy...
Singapore is ranked 133 out of 175 countries in RSF's 2009 world press freedom index.
