Lim Tean Arrested As He Said He Won’t Go For Interview, Says Police
Peoples Voice leader Lim Tean was dramatically arrested today (2 Oct) by police from the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) for 2 separate charges of criminal breach of trust and unlawful stalking.
This comes as the police claims he refuses to attend any interviews, thus forcing the arrest.
They published a letter on Facebook from Lim Tean’s lawyer, stating that Mr Lim will not attend any interviews.
Meanwhile, Mr Lim said publicly on a live Facebook video that he won’t cooperate with any investigations as they are politically motivated.
The police denies these claims and says they must investigate all reports thoroughly.
Police release letter from Lim Team’s lawyer
The letter was sent on Sunday (27 Sep) by M Ravi, Mr Lim’s lawyer.
In it, he claims that the charges are politically motivated and calls them frivolous.
As such, the letter states that Mr Lim won’t cooperate with any investigations.
It also states that the 2nd charge – the one on unlawful stalking – doesn’t pertain to the CAD and instead falls under the Protection from Harassment Act (POHA).
The letter is published in full and only redacts information and allegations pertaining to the charges. You can view the full letter here.
Lim Tean gives his side of the story
Lim Tean was bailed out of jail by Leong Sze Hian, his client, earlier today.
Following this, he went live on Facebook talking about his arrest and the charges which he is accused of.
He denies that the charges have any basis to them and says he told the investigating officer at Cantonment Complex that they’re politically motivated.
Mr Lim also denies telling the police that he won’t attend any interview — saying they deliberately construed his words to mean that.
He says that he told the Investigating Officer over the phone that he’ll only do so after 9 Oct.
9 Oct is the day that the defamation trial for PM Lee against Mr Leong concludes.
However, he claims that the police simply interpreted the letter as they saw fit to arrest him.
2 weeks ago, presumably 16 Sep, Mr Lim says he received a call from the police asking him to come down for an interview.
He says he knew then, that the charges were to disrupt his preparation of Mr Leong’s case.
Claims political motivation in charges
Mr Lim also talks about both charges in the video. The first one deals with a client he took on in 2008.
He says the legal costs for an injury case he took on, a sum of $18,000, wasn’t awarded to him. This is now a dispute in the courts as he switched to another lawyer, he says. That lawyer is now allegedly looking to get the money back.
The criminal breach of trust charge, filed by that man’s new counsel, alleges that Mr Lim held on to that money. Mr Lim denies this and calls the charge frivolous.
Meanwhile, the unlawful stalking charge he says is also frivolous, and not handled by the Commercial Affairs Division — which came to arrest him today.
He claims that the person, an ex-employee of his firm, is disgruntled and resigned after a month of working there.
Although no evidence is provided in the video, Mr Lim says that this employee also has no basis for making the accusation, as he says he has never stalked anyone.
Police needs to investigate cases
Lim Tean has stated that he won’t cooperate with the police for these charges. However, they also have a duty to investigate the case thoroughly.
He says in the video that he will only go down for any interview after 9 Oct as the defamation trial ends then.
Perhaps this is what has to happen. Whether he is really guilty of the charges is for the police and the courts to decide after investigations.
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