SINGAPORE: Glenn Jeyasingam Knight, who served as a deputy public prosecutor and had been the country’s first director of the Commercial Affairs Department, has died at the age of 80. The Straits Times quoted a friend of his as saying that the Singapore Police Force reached out to him to let him know that Mr Knight had passed away.
A doctor pronounced him dead on the scene in the early morning hours on Wednesday (Feb 19). Mr Knight died on a flight from Australia to Singapore. A spokesman said the police had received an alert concerning a possible death on Scoot Flight TR21 before 1 am.
After the aircraft landed in Singapore at 3 am, the police entered the aircraft and found an 80-year-old man in a seat, motionless.
Mr Knight had been married to Pathmavali Rengayah, who passed away some years ago. The couple had no children. The details concerning his funeral will be announced later, The New Paper quoted Mr Knight’s friend, Wake Up, Singapore founder Affifin Shah, as saying.
Known as one of Singapore’s finest legal minds, Mr Knght joined the Singapore Legal Service in 1970 and became a deputy public prosecutor in 1978, having established a reputation as a fearless law enforcer. This reputation, however, was tarnished in 1991 after he was investigated for commercial crimes. He was convicted of corruption and disbarred three years later.
In 1998, he was charged with criminal breach of trust for misappropriation of $4,200 in 1989 and 1990 during his stint as the director of the CAD. He was again found guilty, and subsequently, he resigned from his job as a consultant in a public-listed company.
Mr Knight filed an application seeking court approval to be reinstated as a lawyer in 2007, which was granted, and he later joined Bernard & Rada Law Corporation. He was the sixth lawyer reinstated to the Law Society in Singapore.
He wrote a memoir called The Prosecutor, which was published in 2012. In it, he wrote about such high-profile legal proceedings as the Adrian Lim murders, as well as the Pan El and JB Jeyaretnam cases. He also talked about his experiences with some of the stellar figures in Singapore’s legal history, including Singapore’s first Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin, Justice FA Chua, Justice Choor Singh, and David Marshall.
Tributes to Mr Knight have been posted online, including one from Mr Jose Raymond, the former chairman of the Singapore People’s Party.
“Mr Knight was always there for me when I needed support, providing counsel to friends in need of legal help and he also signed off on my 2020 elections papers as my commissioner for oaths. He also had a heart for Singapore football and used to lament the current state of the sport… I will see you on the other side and thank you for everything,” he wrote.
UPDATE: 8:30 pm
Mr Affifin Shah shared the details concerning Mr Knight’s wake:
Venue: Singapore Casket, Crystal Hall, Level 4
Schedule: Thursday (Feb 20) at 11:00 am to Sunday (Feb 23) at 10:00 am, followed by cremation at Mandai Crematorium Hall 3 at 11:40 am
The featured image above is from Wake Up, Singapore and Amazon. /TISG