AGC demands lawyer retract comments over drug runner case
The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) has issued a letter of demand to lawyer M. Ravi to apologise and retract comments he had made about a case involving a drug runner who escaped the gallows.
In a video interview with alternative news site The Online Citizen (TOC) on Monday, Mr Ravi made "false and highly inflammatory" allegations against the prosecution in the case, the AGC said yesterday.
His comments came after the five-judge Court of Appeal on Monday reversed a 2018 decision to convict Gobi Avedian on a capital charge.
Mr Ravi told TOC the prosecutor had been "overzealous" in prosecuting Gobi, which had "led to the death sentence".
He also said "it was troubling" that the prosecution ran different cases before the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
Mr Ravi called on the Public Prosecutor and others to apologise to Gobi for the suffering he had experienced and added that the apex court's judgment calls into question "the fairness of the administration of justice in Gobi's case by the prosecution".
Yesterday, the AGC said in a statement that it had sent Mr Ravi a letter earlier in the day demanding that he apologise and unconditionally retract the allegations he had made.
"These are serious allegations, that the Public Prosecutor has acted in bad faith or maliciously in the prosecution of the applicant (Gobi)," the AGC said.
"They are false and highly inflammatory. It is highly improper and entirely contrary to Mr Ravi's obligations as an officer of the court for him to make these unfounded, baseless and misleading allegations."
The AGC noted that the Court of Appeal made no adverse findings against the Public Prosecutor or the prosecution of Gobi.
The AGC has given Mr Ravi until noon tomorrow to respond. - THE STRAITS TIMES
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