Eugene Singarajah Thuraisingam (born 10 June 1975) is a lawyer from
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
. He is the founder of the law firm Eugene Thuraisingam LLP, a law firm that specialises in
international arbitration and
criminal
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...
and
commercial litigation. He is also known for his advocacy of
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
and for his opposition of the
death penalty in Singapore
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Singapore. Executions are carried out by long drop hanging, and usually take place at dawn. 33 offences— including murder, drug trafficking, terrorism, use of firearms and kidnapping — warrant the ...
.
In relation to his domestic practice as a
criminal lawyer
A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer (mostly barristers) specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal activity. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained, while others are employed by the various ...
in Singapore, Thuraisingam has defended many alleged suspects in high profile criminal trials, including those who were dissidents and critics of the government of Singapore. For his legal service for many defendants in the court of Singapore, Doyles Guide has named him as a leading criminal defence lawyer in Singapore in 2020.
Education and career
Thuraisingam, who was born in Singapore in 1975, attended
Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and graduated with a
Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...
from the
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...
, where he was placed on the
Dean's List
A dean's list is an academic award, or distinction, used to recognize the highest level scholarship demonstrated by students in a college or university. This system is most often used in North America, though institutions in Europe, Asia, and Aust ...
in his final year of study.
After he was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 2001, Thuraisingam practised law at
Allen & Gledhill
Allen & Gledhill LLP is a Singapore law firm with a regional network of associate firms and offices. It is the largest law firm in Singapore, and is a regional market leader in many practices, particularly banking, finance, capital markets, corpo ...
for nine years and at Stamford Law Corporation for another three years before he founded his own law firm, Eugene Thuraisingam LLP (ET LLP), in 2012.
ET LLP was named as one of the top two criminal law firms in Singapore in the inaugural Singapore's Best Law Firms 2021 undertaken by The Straits Times and German-based research firm Statista.
In 2021 and in conjunction of ET LLP's 9th anniversary and in partnership with the Law Society Pro Bono Services (LSPBS), SGD 100,000 was raised for LSPBS' campaign, 'inclusive justice', which supports LSPBS' court representation schemes for foreigners in areas of criminal legal aid, matrimonial matters and more. Thuraisingam intends for this to be an annual event to raise funds for LSPBS.
Cases taken by Thuraisingam
Nagaenthran Dharmalingam
In May 2019, Thuraisingam represented
Malaysian
Malaysian may refer to:
* Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia
* Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia
* Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regard ...
drug trafficker
Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam
Nagaenthran a/l K. Dharmalingam (13 September 1988 – 27 April 2022) was a Malaysians, Malaysian drug trafficker who was convicted of trafficking 42.72 grams of heroin in April 2009 upon entering Singapore from Malaysia at Woodlands Checkpoint ...
in his appeal for re-sentencing. Nagaenthran, who was on death row since 2010 for trafficking over 42g of heroin, submitted his appeal for re-sentencing after the 2013 changes to the death penalty laws (which allows life imprisonment for drug convicts with diminished responsibility), and in the appeal, Thuraisingam argued that Nagaenthran has low IQ and was thus intellectually disabled, therefore qualifying his for the defence of diminished responsibility and the death penalty should be commuted to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
. However, the psychiatrists from both the defence and prosecution confirmed that Nagaenthran was not intellectually disabled and he fully understood the full magnitude of his actions. Therefore he was denied re-sentencing by the Court of Appeal. Nagaenthran, who was later defended by another lawyer in his later appeals, was executed on 27 April 2022 despite international appeals for clemency.
Woodlands double murder
In July 2019, Thuraisingam represented former property agent
Teo Ghim Heng
The Woodlands double murders were the murders of pregnant housewife Choong Pei Shan (钟佩珊 Zhōng Peìshān) and her daughter Teo Zi Ning (张梓宁 Zhāng Zǐníng) by her husband Teo Ghim Heng (张锦兴 Zhāng Jĭnxīng) on 20 January 2017. ...
, who was charged with the murders of his pregnant wife Choong Pei Shan and their daughter Zi Ning at their Woodlands flat during the final week before the
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Sinophone, Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly r ...
of 2017. Thuraisingam argued in the trial that Teo was suffering from major depressive disorder which impaired his mental responsibility during the commission of the offences, and he also put up the defence of sudden and grave provocation, since Teo recounted he was arguing violently with his wife over their precarious financial situation and Zi Ning's overdue school fees before he used a towel to strangle both Choong and Zi Ning. However, Teo was found guilty of murder and
sentenced to death
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
, because both the High Court and Court of Appeal rejected Thuraisingam's arguments and Teo's defences, based on the fact that Teo knew perfectly what he was doing and his mental condition was normal and not impaired at the time he committed the murders.
2016 Toa Payoh child abuse case
In November 2019, Thuraisingam represented
Ridzuan Mega Abdul Rahman, an unemployed man who was jointly charged with his wife
Azlin Arujunah
On 23 October 2016, a five-year-old boy was pronounced dead at a children's hospital in Singapore. He was found to have been a victim of child abuse by his parents Azlin binte Arujunah and Ridzuan bin Mega Abdul Rahman for months leading up to h ...
for abusing and murdering his five-year-old son, who was fatally scalded to death after four scalding incidents over a week leading up to the boy's death. Thuraisingam presented evidence of Ridzuan having low IQ and intermittent explosive disorder among several psychiatric disorders to support his client's defence of diminished responsibility, and made arguments to create reasonable doubt over whether Ridzuan had knowledge that his scalding of his child (not named due to a gag order) would lead to the boy's death. While the psychiatric evidence did not hold much weight in favour of Ridzuan's case, Thuraisingam's efforts had seen partial success as the High Court acquitted Ridzuan of murder (together with Azlin) and thus sentenced Ridzuan to 27 years' jail and 24 strokes of the cane for voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous means. Later on, Thuraisingam also help represent Ridzuan during the hearing of the prosecution's appeal, and he objected to the imposition of life imprisonment on Ridzuan on account of his young age and low functioning, which were factors that were in favour of leniency in his case. In the end, the five judges from the Court of Appeal increased Ridzuan's sentence to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
(with no caning) for the reduced charges (in light of the extreme cruelty of the abuse) while Azlin was found guilty of the original charge of murder and sentenced to life in prison by the same five judges.
Boh Soon Ho
Another one of the cases taken by Thuraisingam was the case of
Boh Soon Ho
On 21 March 2016, 28-year-old Zhang Huaxiang (; 6 November 1987 – 21 March 2016), a China-born nurse working in Singapore, was murdered by her close male friend Boh Soon Ho (), a Malaysian working as a cafeteria worker in Singapore. Boh's motiv ...
, a
Malaysian
Malaysian may refer to:
* Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia
* Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia
* Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regard ...
who was charged with murdering his
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
girlfriend Zhang Huaxiang inside his rented room at Circuit Road. Thuraisingam argued that Boh should be convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder as he committed the killing under the loss of self control due to sudden and grave provocation caused by Zhang, who told Boh that she was seeing other men, which caused anger and hurt to Boh, who had one sided feelings for her and led to him using a towel to strangle Zhang to death. However, Boh's defence was rejected by the courts of Singapore, and he was found guilty of the original charge of murder. Despite Thuraisingam's failed efforts to reduce the charge, he successfully argued for Boh to evade the death penalty and he was instead sentenced to
lifetime imprisonment on the grounds that he did not exhibit viciousness or blatant disregard for human life, and that the murder itself was not premeditated in the first place.
Tanah Merah ferry terminal killer
Thuraisingam also took charge of defending
Ahmad Muin Yaacob
On 25 November 2016, at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, Singapore, during a heated argument, Ahmad Muin bin Yaacob, a 23-year-old Malaysian cleaner, killed his 54-year-old supervisor Maimunah binte Awang by stabbing her with a pair of grass cutters an ...
, a Malaysian cleaner charged with murdering his supervisor Maimunah Awang (54 years old) at
Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal
The Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal is a ferry terminal in Singapore, located at Changi. The terminal serves ferry services to the Indonesian islands of Batam and Bintan, and Desaru, in Johor, Malaysia. It is owned and managed by Singapore Crui ...
and stealing her jewellery for money to cover his wedding expenses in November 2016. Although Thuraisingam was originally not Ahmad's lawyer at the start of his trial, he and his colleagues Chooi Jing Yen and Johannes Hadi took over the case by the time Ahmad was convicted of a Section 300(c) murder charge and awaiting his sentencing trial. Thuraisingam made representations to the prosecution that Ahmad had killed Maimunah in a fit of anger during a heated argument between him and Maimunah (who allegedly insulted Ahmad and his family), and there was no premeditation or intention on Ahmad's part to commit robbery and murder in the first place, and he argued that the case's overall nature and factors did not warrant the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
, which the prosecution eventually did not seek after relenting and agreeing to Thuraisingam's submissions. Ahmad was, in the end, sentenced to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
and 18
strokes of the cane on 4 November 2020.
2019 Orchard Towers killing
Thuraisingam was set to defend Tan Sen Yang, one of the seven suspects who were involved in the
2019 Orchard Towers murder. Tan was said to have used a karambit knife to stab the victim Satheesh Noel Gobidass on the neck and jaw, and he was the sole person to face a murder charge while the rest were sentenced for lower charges of assault, obstruction of justice and consorting an armed person. Tan is currently in remand pending trial for murder.
Anti-death penalty poem controversy
In 2017, Thuraisingam was brought to court by
Lucien Wong
Lucien Wong Yuen Kuai (born 1953) is a Singaporean lawyer who has been serving as the ninth attorney-general of Singapore since 2017.
A former corporate lawyer, Wong was the chairman and a senior partner of Allen & Gledhill, as well as the cha ...
, the
Attorney-General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
, for allegedly
scandalising the judiciary when he wrote a poem, titled ''Our Five Stars Dim Tonight'', critical of the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
hours before the execution of drug trafficker Muhammad Ridzuan Md Ali, whom he had represented. Thuraisingam is said to have intended to bring home the point that the rich and powerful people in Singapore did not care about the unfairness of the mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking as most of the people facing the death penalty come from very poor backgrounds. Thuraisingam was fined S$6,000 by the court. Wong also lodged a complaint to the
Law Society in relation to the same poem. A disciplinary tribunal appointed by
Sundaresh Menon
Sundaresh Menon (born 26 February 1962) is a Singaporean lawyer and jurist who has been serving as the fourth chief justice of Singapore since 2012, appointed by President Tony Tan.
Education
Sundaresh graduated from the National University of ...
, the
Chief Justice, held that Thuraisingam had not intended to attack the judiciary in his poem, which was found to be in contempt of court. They held that the references to judges in the poem 'is more likely to have been an authorial misstep than a deliberate assault upon judicial integrity'. Nevertheless, Thuraisingam was fined a further S$5,000 by the Law Society for penning the poem.
Awards
In 2016, Thuraisingam received the Legal Assistance Scheme for Capital Offences award from
Sundaresh Menon
Sundaresh Menon (born 26 February 1962) is a Singaporean lawyer and jurist who has been serving as the fourth chief justice of Singapore since 2012, appointed by President Tony Tan.
Education
Sundaresh graduated from the National University of ...
, the
Chief Justice of Singapore
The chief justice of Singapore is the chief justice, presiding member of the Supreme Court of Singapore. It is the highest post in the judicial system of Singapore, appointed by the President of Singapore, president, chosen from the candidates rec ...
, for his work in defending accused persons in
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
cases.
In 2021, the Singapore Law Society Pro bono Ambassador award was presented to him by its President, Mr Gregory Vijayendran for his unstinting dedication to taking on pro bono cases for impecunious Singaporeans.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thuraisingam, Eugene
Living people
1975 births
Human rights lawyers
National University of Singapore alumni
Anti–death penalty activists
Anglo-Chinese School alumni
Anglo-Chinese Junior College alumni
Singaporean people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent
Singaporean people of Indian descent
21st-century Singaporean lawyers