SINGAPORE – Two lawyers who attempted to obstruct the course of justice were each sentenced to jail on Sept 30.
Wee Hong Shern, 37, who had sent another lawyer, Ong Peng Boon, his direct supervisor at the time, a text message relating to contraband cigarettes in May 2019, was given seven months’ jail.
Ong, 68, who forwarded the message to a third man, identified as Tan Hock Ann, was sentenced to a year in jail. Tan was arrested in August 2019 for dealing in duty-unpaid cigarettes.
In February, District Judge Marvin Bay convicted Wee and Ong of one count each of attempting to intentionally obstruct the course of justice.
Before handing down the sentences on Sept 30, the judge said: “The factual matrix, in my judgment, shows Mr Ong to have been far more deeply invested in the criminal activity than his junior colleague.
“The evidence shows Mr Ong to have maintained a tight veil of secrecy in respect of his dealings with (Mr Tan)… Given the obvious secrecy, I sense Mr Wee’s involvement had been for a far shorter term.”
However, Judge Bay stressed that the current case involved two legal professionals who have a duty to uphold justice and facilitate judicial processes.
He said: “They have instead exploited their privileged statuses during court proceedings to transmit and relay encrypted communications to a criminal organisation, in a bid to assist the group avoid law enforcement action.”
According to court documents, Wee sent what had been described as a “cryptic” message to Ong at 11.52am on May 10, 2019.
The message said: “I talked to Ah Boon to update. Basically: Buffalo is busted. Factory is safe for now, but he warns it’s only a matter of time before they find out where it is as they have the SD (card) of Ah Boon’s vehicle.
“They can trace buffalo and find factory eventually. So he said to clear everything from Factory ASAP. Evidence has come out that ST has been paid by China man. His Zello phone was seized, and he didn’t have time (to) delete convos. Bail opened at 55K.”
The court heard that at the time, Wee had just attended a court mention of his then client, Selva Kumar Subramaniam, who had been charged with dealing in duty-unpaid cigarettes. He then sent the message to Ong.
A minute later, Ong forwarded the message to Tan, who had earlier hired him to represent Selva. Ong also followed up with another message stating: “Delete after read.”