American Blogger Arrested, Held in Solitary By Singapore Police
Two days after writing a blog post criticizing the practices of Singapore’s
Judge Belinda Ang, Gopalan Nair, the Singapore Dissident, found himself arrested by the country’s police force and held in solitary confinement for five days.
Nair, an American citizen who has a law practice in California, was planning to leave Singapore on June 3. He explains the back story and his time in prison in a subsequent post:
I was ordered to change into prison clothes and taken in handcuffs to a cell. From that moment I was kept in solitary confinement alone in a cell. The light was kept on 24 hours. There was no bed or even a mattress on the floor. I had to sleep on a hard floor. Although it can become cold there was no blanket. Unable to withstand the cold, I began shivering uncontrollably. I asked for a blanket from a passing guard. He provided it. This was on the 3rd or the 4th day of my confinement. Truly, it was not a blanket at all. It was a thin plastic sheet, which was not even long enough even to cover your feet. It did not keep you warm. But anything was better than shivering.
Nair says free speech and expression are at the heart of the matter:
It appears to me as well as anyone watching this case that what the Singapore authorities are trying to say is this. Do not criticize the Singapore judiciary no matter what. Even if the Singapore judiciary were to say, two and two is ten, the Moon is made of cheese and Christmas Day does not fall on December 25th, we have to keep our mouths shut and go about our business as if nothing happened!
Nair, who was charged with insulting a public servant and has been released on bail, denies sending emails to Ang.
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