A disciplinary tribunal has heard a complaint of misconduct filed against two prosecutors by Ms Parti Liyani, the Indonesian domestic helper whose theft conviction in 2019 was overturned in a high-profile appeal in 2020.
The tribunal issued its judgment on March 10 on the complaint against Ms Tan Yanying and Mr Tan Wee Hao, the Deputy Public Prosecutors who had handled the initial prosecution of Ms Parti.
The tribunal found “no cause of sufficient gravity for disciplinary action” against the two DPPs.
The Parti Liyani case goes all the way back to 2016.
Ms Parti had worked for the family of Mr Liew Mun Leong, then chairman of the Changi Airport Group (CAG) from 2007 to 2016. When she was dismissed on Oct 28, 2016, she flew home to Indonesia.
Mr Liew then filed a police report on Oct 30, 2016 against Ms Parti, claiming that items belonging to the Liew family had been found in the boxes she intended to ship home home, and she was arrested on her return to Singapore on Dec 2, 2016.
In August 2017, she was charged with four counts of theft, involving 144 items valued at more than S$50,000.
Two months later, she reported to the Ministry of Manpower that she had been illegally deployed to clean the home and office of Karl Liew, the son of her amployer
On March 20, 2019, District Judge Olivia Low sentenced the helper to two years and two months in jail for theft, Ms Parti appealed and the conviction was overturned on Sept 4, 2020.
Justice Chan Seng Onn noted in his decision that there was “reason to believe that the Liew family … took the pre-emptive first step to terminate” Ms Parti to prevent her from filing a complaint of illegal deployment.
Shortly after Ms Parti was acquitted, Mr Liew stepped down as CAG chairman. The high-profile case led to a discussion in Parliament about Singapore’s criminal justice system.
Ms Parti went to court on Sept 23, 2020, to seek disciplinary proceedings against the prosecutors who had got her convicted. A disciplinary inquiry carried out in response to the complaint was held from Sept 6 to 9, 2021.
Her complaint centred on the manner in which the two DPPs cross-examined her as to whether the DVD player she was accused of stealing was functional. Ms Parti said they had falsely shown that the DVD was working during her District Court trial in 2018.
The tribunal, which was made up of Senior Judge Chao Hick Tin and senior lawyer Patrick Ang, said in its judgment that the DPPs demonstration of the DVD player had been done “openly and fairly,” but added that more could have been done to ascertain the working condition of the DVD player, which has dual functions, only one of which was working.
Ms Parti said Mr Liew’s wife had given her the faulty player listed among the items that she had been accused of stealing.
Ms Parti claimed that in court, the DPPs gave the impression the DVD player was fully functional, and failed to disclose that they had trouble playing DVD.
Ms Yanying said in response that the relevant issue at hand was whether or not the player was working. The tribunal tended to agree with this and said that the DPPs could not be faulted for lack of candor, yahoo!news reported.
Now, will this tribunal’s ruling finally signal the end of this long-running saga? /TISG
Disciplinary tribunal hearing vs prosecutors in Parti Liyani case ended after 4 days