The Honourable Justice
See Kee Oon
施奇恩
Judge of the Appellate Division of the High Court of Singapore
Assumed office
1 October 2023
Judge of the High Court of Singapore
Assumed office
1 February 2017
Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore
Assumed office
14 April 2014[1]
Presiding Judge of the State Courts of Singapore
In office
14 April 2014 – 31 March 2020
Preceded byPosition Created
Succeeded byVincent Hoong Seng Lei
Chief District Judge of the Subordinate Courts of Singapore
In office
1 October 2013 – 13 April 2014
Preceded byTan Siong Thye
Succeeded byPosition Abolished
Personal details
Born1966 (age 57–58)
Singapore
Alma materNational University of Singapore
Hughes Hall, Cambridge
See Kee Oon
Simplified Chinese施奇恩

See Kee Oon (born 1966) is a Singaporean judge who is currently a Judge of the Supreme Court and was the Presiding Judge of the State Courts.

Education

See received a Bachelor of Laws from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1991 and obtained a Master of Laws (first class honours) from the University of Cambridge in 1994. He also holds a Master of Public Management from the NUS's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

Career

See joined the Singapore Legal Service in 1991 and was appointed as a Deputy Registrar and Magistrate in the Subordinate Courts (now State Courts).[2] From 1995 to 1997, he served as a Justices' Law Clerk before becoming a District Judge in 1998. As a District Judge, he heard a variety of cases in the criminal, civil and family courts until 2007, when he became Head of the Insolvency and Public Trustee's Office. In November 2009, See was reappointed as a District Judge and subsequently made Senior District Judge, heading the Criminal Justice Division of the Subordinate Courts.

During his tenure as District Judge, See presided the robbery trial of Ragu Ramajayam, who was the secondary mastermind of a S$1.3 million mobile phone heist, during which Ragu's colleague Wan Cheon Kem was robbed and brutally killed by Ragu's accomplices. See sentenced 37-year-old Ragu to six years in prison and 12 strokes of the cane, after taking into account that Ragu breached his position of trust and his role in the heist itself had led to the murder of Wan.[3] Ragu's sentence was later reduced to 4+1⁄2 years in jail and six strokes of the cane after he appealed. In the aftermath, one of Ragu's accomplices Nakamuthu Balakrishnan was given the death sentence for murder while the remaining three were given jail terms and caning for armed robbery with hurt.[4]

On 1 October 2013, See became the Chief District Judge of the Subordinate Courts[5] and a member of a committee to guide the development of the Singapore University of Social Sciences's School of Law.[6] On 14 April 2014, he was appointed as a Judicial Commissioner and Presiding Judge of the State Courts. On 31 January 2017, he was promoted to Judge of the Supreme Court.[7][8]

See has taken the unusual position that testifying witnesses are not required to be given an oath or otherwise instructed to tell the truth. Instead, he contends that the Oaths and Declarations Act "gives the judge the prerogative[9] whether to caution a witness ["to speak the truth"] or not,"[10] resulting in a greater likelihood of wrongful convictions.

One case presided by See was the 2021 trial of Gaiyathiri Murugayan, who was charged with the abuse and murder of Piang Ngaih Don, a Myanmar national who was her domestic maid. Gaiyathiri was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and voluntarily causing hurt to the maid, and sentenced to a total of 30 years' imprisonment. See described the case as one of the worst cases of culpable homicide Singapore has ever seen, and described that the degree of callousness and violence was so shocking that no suitable words could adequately describe the inhumane year-long mistreatment, assault and starvation, which the maid was subjected to.[11]

In July 2018, See was also the presiding judge of a female drug trafficker’s case for diamorphine trafficking. The female trafficker, Saridewi Djamani, was charged with one count of smuggling 30.72g of diamorphine and she put up a defense that she only meant to traffic less than half of the drugs while leaving the remaining majority portion for her personal use during the Muslim fasting month Ramadan. See rejected Saridewi’s claims since she had attempted to downplay the scale of her criminal activities and was inconsistent with her evidence regarding her daily drug intake in both her police statements and court testimony. Since Saridewi was not acting as a courier, she was sentenced to death upon her conviction for diamorphine trafficking. Saridewi’s Malaysian accomplice Muhammad Haikal Abdullah was jointly tried and later sentenced to life imprisonment and caning (15 strokes) by See on the same date of Saridewi’s sentencing. Five years later, 45-year-old Saridewi was executed on 28 July 2023, becoming the first female offender to be put to death, 19 years after the Yen May Woen case in 2004.[12] [13][14]

See was also the judge who heard the last-minute appeals by two Malaysian drug traffickers Pannir Selvam Pranthaman and Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam in 2020 and 2021 respectively, as they sought to reopen their cases and delay their executions. Both Pannir and Nagaenthran lost their appeals and remained on death row since, and out of the two, Nagaenthran was initially set to be executed on 10 November 2021 before it was delayed due to Nagaenthran tested positive for COVID-19.[15][16][17] Nagaenthran was hanged on 27 April 2022.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "Judge of Appeal reappointed and Judicial Commissioner appointed at the Supreme Court". AsiaOne. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  2. ↑ ":: Alternative Dispute Resolution Conference 2012 ::". Archived from the original on 4 October 2013.
  3. ↑ "Man jailed, caned for role in cellphone heist". The Straits Times. 25 April 2007.
  4. ↑ "Two robbers spared death penalty". The Straits Times. 4 September 2010.
  5. ↑ "APPOINTMENT OF MR SEE KEE OON AS THE NEW CHIEF DISTRICT JUDGE, SUBORDINATE COURTS AND MR ONG HIAN SUN AS THE NEW SENIOR DISTRICT JUDGE, CRIMINAL JUSTICE DIVISION, SUBORDINATE COURTS WEF 1 OCTOBER 2013" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 September 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  6. ↑ "Steering committee for UniSIM law school unveiled" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  7. ↑ "Appointment of Judges of the High Court | Prime Minister's Office Singapore". 8 February 2017. Archived from the original on 8 February 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  8. ↑ "See Kee Oon, Chua Lee Ming appointed as Judges of the High Court". www.businesstimes.com.sg. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  9. ↑ "Prerogative definition".
  10. ↑ "2018_SGHC_243".
  11. ↑ "30 years' jail for woman who starved and tortured Myanmar maid to death". The Straits Times. 22 June 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  12. ↑ "40-year-old Singaporean woman sentenced to mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking". The Independent Singapore. 21 September 2018.
  13. ↑ "Singapore to execute woman on drugs charge for the first time in 20 years". BBC. 27 July 2023.
  14. ↑ "Singapore executes woman for first time in almost two decades". The Guardian. 28 July 2023.
  15. ↑ "Drug mule fails in bid to start court challenge against rejection of clemency petition". The Straits Times. 12 February 2020. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  16. ↑ "Court dismisses last-ditch application in case of Malaysian drug trafficker on death row". CNA. 8 November 2021. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  17. ↑ "M'sian drug trafficker gets last-minute stay of death penalty after testing positive for Covid-19". Today. 9 November 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  18. ↑ "Singapore executes Malaysian on drugs charges after rejecting mental disability appeal". Today. 27 April 2022. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
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