Court of Appeal Issues Ruling in Defamation Case of Terry Xu
SINGAPORE – The Court of Appeal ruled on October 29, stating that an offender who serves a jail sentence and then successfully appeals to have the sentence reduced to a fine cannot use the time served to satisfy the fine.
This ruling stemmed from the defamation case involving Terry Xu, the chief editor of The Online Citizen, who was convicted of defaming Cabinet members. Xu was initially sentenced to three weeks’ jail in April 2022 but opted to serve his time despite appealing, as he had relocated to Taiwan.
In May 2023, his appeal succeeded, and his sentence was reduced to an $8,000 fine, with a two-week jail term as default if the fine was unpaid. However, his lawyers argued that the time Xu had already served should count towards the default jail term. The prosecution countered that under the law, Xu must serve the two-week default term.
The Court of Appeal judges ruled that Xu’s earlier decision to serve the jail term to facilitate his move was his choice and he must accept the consequences. They emphasized the importance of seeking a stay of execution of the original sentence while awaiting appeal to prevent such situations.
The judges added that allowing default imprisonment terms to be backdated would create situations where offenders might avoid paying fines by citing time already spent in remand, undermining the penalty system.
The Court concluded that the High Court had wrongly substituted Xu’s jail term with a fine and should have upheld the original sentence.
