By K. C. Vijayan, Law Correspondent

MORE than two years after he was locked away for life for murdering two fellow Singaporeans, former university student Ram Puneet Tiwary's conviction has been quashed by an Australian Court of Appeal.

The three-judge court in New South Wales upheld his appeal, declaring that the trial had been carried out improperly.

The judges ordered a re-trial, which means it is back to square one for the prosecution to prove that Tiwary murdered 26-year-old Tay Chow Lyang and 27-year-old Tan Poh Chuan in the Sydney apartment the three men shared.

REACTIONS FROM VICTIMS' FAMILIES
Distraught and disappointed

By Ben Nadarajan

TWO-and-a-half years ago, the families of the two men brutally battered and stabbed to death in their Sydney apartment in 2003 thought the killer had been locked away for good.

The last two years have been all about getting over their tragic losses.

But the fragile healing process was shattered yesterday when an appeal court in Sydney ordered a re-trial for Ram Puneet Tiwary.

REACTION FROM TIWARY'S FAMILY
'We still have a long way to go'

By K. C. Vijayan

RAM Tiwary's cousin said the appeal decision showed what the accused had been maintaining all along - his innocence.

Mr Ramesh Tiwary, a Singapore lawyer, said his cousin had been 'quietly optimistic' that things would work out and he would get a retrial, even as he served time in prison.

Tiwary is currently detained at a prison in Lithgow, about three hours' drive from Sydney. He has been in jail for more than four years.

About the case

TWO Singaporean men studying at the University of New South Wales in Sydney were found murdered in their apartment in September 2003.

The bodies of Mr Tony Tan Poh Chuan, 27, and Mr Tay Chow Lyang, 26, were found by their Singaporean flatmate Ram Puneet Tiwary, then 24.

Tiwary claimed he had been asleep that morning and woke to find his two friends dead. Police arrested him for the double murders only eight months later.

The jury system

SINGAPORE no longer uses jury trials, but it is still a commonly used practice in countries such as Australia, Britain and the United States.

A jury consists of about 12 members of the public randomly chosen from the electoral roll.

In these trials, the judge's role is to decide on matters of law such as whether a certain piece of evidence should be allowed to be used in the trial.

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