Man's lawyer says he is trying to obtain the letter from prison officials.

By Irene Ngoo
Jul 4, 2007
AsiaOne

The prisoner who was wrongly caned by an extra three strokes had written to his family informing them of the mistake but the letter was withheld by the prison authorities, his lawyer alleged today.

"I was shocked when the family told me this. It appears that the authorities wanted to cover this up totally. I am trying to obtain a copy of this letter," said Mr Joseph Chen, who is representing the family of Dickson Tan Yong Wen, 20, who was given eight strokes of the cane instead of the five he was convicted for abetting an illegal moneylender to harass a debtor.

Mr Chen said this latest revelation provided further grounds for the family to seek punitive damages and to pursue criminal charges against those who made the mistake.

He believed the prison authorities have a record of Tan's letter which never reached his family.

The caning was carried out on March 29 and the authorities said prisons officers observed all procedures relating to the administration of the caning, including verifying with Tan that the number of strokes of caning was correct.

The government has since said it regretted the error which was made by a court clerk who had added three more strokes to the punishment when he was preparing the paperwork for Tan's commitment to prison. The clerk has since resigned.

Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar, who is also the Law Minister, said yesterday that the government takes the caning error seriously and that the courts and other authorities have put in checks and balances to make sure it does not happen again.

Prof Jayakumar said that when the caning mistake was discovered, officials from the Attorney-General's Chambers went to apologise to Tan and his family.

Tan's mother, Madam Ho Gee Lin, 52, a housewife, has insisted that her son had alerted two prison officers of the error prior to the caning and said Tan was prepared to undergo a lie detector test.

Mr Chen said that the family is seeking compensation for the mistake and a mediation hearing has been scheduled for July 13.

Tan's family had initially asked for $150,000 but raised it to $300,000 when advised by the lawyer that there are "aggravating factors" to support their claims.

Mr Chen said his client is willing to settle for a "reasonable" compensation which, he said, "should not be under $300k and unreasonable".

If an acceptable compensation is not reached, Tan's family will take the case to court to sue the government for causing "grevious bodily hurt" to Tan, and for " failure to carry out or fulfill official duty", which are both criminal charges, said the lawyer.

When it comes to that course of action, they will be asking for $3 million, and donate $2.7 million to charity. The government has rejected their demand.

In an interview with The New Paper on Sunday, Madam Ho said: "I want to sue not just because of the money, but because I want justice for my son.

She claims that her son, who is on home detention until the end of August, is suffering from stress and trauma.

"He's still so young. I don't know how long he'll take to recover," she told TNP on Sunday.

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