Charles Yeo Yao Hui, a lawyer and opposition politician, stated on Instagram on July 30 that he was seeking "political asylum" in the United Kingdom, following repeated allegations in recent months that criminal charges against him were "politically motivated."
The former Reform Party leader, age 31, was on bail when he departed Singapore last week, having acquired court permission to travel to Vietnam for work from July 27 to July 30.
However, instead of returning to Singapore, he travelled to the United Kingdom.
Yeo's attorney, Mr. Ashwin Ganapathy of IRB Law, stated that his client never told him he had no intention of returning to Singapore. Monday, Mr. Ganapathy told CNA, "We had no idea."
He stated that he expects to step down as Yeo's defense attorney.
Yeo was accused in January for a series of social media remarks that allegedly harmed the religious sensibilities of Christians and harassed a police officer.
In the same month, he was also detained on suspicion of criminal breach of trust and forgery after police reports were filed against the law firm where he worked at the time, Whitefield Law Corporation.
Yeo, a prolific Instagram user, claimed over the weekend in a series of Instagram Stories that his legal difficulties were the consequence of "attacks against a young political activist" and were "politically driven."
His choice to flee was described as "very hard and challenging." "I had abandoned everything,"
Yeo also stated that he believed he would not receive a fair trial in Singapore and apologized to his attorneys, Mr. Ganapathy and Mr.
"I feel that if the court were unbiased, they would easily be able to vindicate me, but I do not believe that even the finest attorney can help in politically driven cases," he stated.
Yeo also explained that his fiancée, close friends, and attorneys were unaware of his plan to seek refuge. In addition, he asserted that he "did not embezzle a single penny."
The Court of Appeal ordered Yeo to pay the Attorney-General S$4,000 in personal costs last week for wrongly filing petitions to contest the death sentences of two narcotics traffickers in February.
A three-judge panel stated, "As a competent attorney with four years of experience, he should have recognized it was his responsibility to establish if there was a valid case to present to the court; he could not simply act based on his clients' orders or wants."
Yeo was a member of the Reform Party team that ran against Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's five-person team in Ang Mo Kio GRC in the 2020 General Election.
Following his January arrest, he resigned as the party's chairman.
Комментарии