Chitchat Prosecutors disagree with High Court ruling

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

Prosecutors dare to argue that the High Court ruling is wrong!

http://news.asiaone.com/news/crime/l...al-later-judge


In jailing Sakthikanesh to three weeks, DJ Ng had, among other things, discounted six weeks for his "exceptional NS performance" on what would otherwise have been a 10 week jail term for an overseas NS defaulter.

This discount was based on guidelines issued by the High Court in dealing with another overseas NS defaulter in February.

The High Court had then ruled exceptional full-time NS performance should be treated as a strong mitigating factor.

Although the brothers had remained out of Singapore without a valid exit permit and failed to report for national service for a length of time, they went on to serve their full-time NS well - one made Officer Cadet School, and the other won a Soldier of the Month Award.

But Deputy Public Prosecutors Kumaresan Gohulabalan and Randeep Singh Koonar argued exceptional NS performance should not be treated as a mitigating factor in itself but as an aspect of good character and should draw minimal weight in mitigation.

They suggested "courts should avoid engaging in a performance ranking exercise to determine the culpability of defaulters".

They added that allowing a jail sentence to be discounted to a fine based on the February High Court decision as applied to Vandana was not in line with a 2006 Ministerial policy statement that someone who defaults for more than two years should get a custodial sentence.

DJ Ng said it was obvious the prosecution was asking him to ignore the guidance provided by the High Court on the mitigating value of exceptional NS performance.

"A lower court ought to give due regard to the benchmark sentences provided, particularly when those benchmarks have been developed by the superior court after a 'rigorous scenario analysis' and are specific in its form and substance.

"This is especially so when those guidelines come in the form of a graph, with plot values and a discount table, which can be applied with certitude and consistency," said DJ Ng, in rejecting the prosecution's submissions.


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