TOC Editor Terry Xu, lawyer M Ravi being investigated for contempt of court

Singapore — The Online Citizen Editor Terry Xu, lawyer M Ravi and two other individuals are being investigated for contempt of court following the publication of online articles and Facebook posts about ongoing court proceedings.

The other two persons are Mr Mohan Rajangam and a TOC writer, Ms Danisha Hakeem.

According to a police spokesperson, the online articles and posts in relation to pending court proceedings about the 2015 extradition of a Singaporean to Malaysia were a “real risk of prejudicing or interfering with the course of such proceedings”.

The police said that on Jan 10 this year, Mr Ravi had filed a petition for criminal revision in the courts, supported by an affidavit from Mr Mohan. TOC then posted on Facebook about it on the same day, containing a link to the article written by Ms Hakeem on the criminal revision.

Subsequently, on Jan 18 and 19, Mr Xu published another Facebook post and article on TOC in response to a media statement issued by the police. Again, the post and article contained information from the affidavit, the police said.

In a Facebook post on Friday morning, Mr Xu wrote: “My computers have once again been confiscated by the Singapore Police. The Police came with no warrant at 7am today.”

“Will have to turn up at the Cantonment Police Station to assist in investigations. A point to note, the articles were never POFMAed,” he added.

The Malaysian courts had issued a warrant of arrest against Mr Mohan in 2015 for his suspected links to a murder that took place in Penang.

The police added on Friday: “The repeated publication of the contents of Mr Mohan’s affidavit is a clear breach of Paragraph 29A(3) of the Supreme Court Practice Directions, and suggests a concerted effort by one or more persons to publicly advocate for Mr Mohan’s cause, ahead of the hearing of the criminal revision.” /TISG