Disturbing trend of offenders blaming their lawyers to challenge convictions: Judge

A Court of Appeal judge has highlighted a "disturbing, ongoing trend" of convicted individuals making baseless accusations against their former lawyers as grounds for challenging their convictions and sentences.

- Selina Lum

Serious allegations against former counsel should not be lightly made and must be substantiated with compelling evidence, said Justice Steven Chong.

Justice Chong made the comments in a written judgment on March 28 in which he dismissed a post-appeal application by Muhammad Salleh Hamid, who was seeking a review of his conviction.

Salleh was sentenced to death in 2019 for trafficking methamphetamine. His appeal was dismissed in 2020.

In the present application, he argued that his former lawyers were negligent or incompetent and had failed to abide by his instructions to raise certain evidence in court.

Justice Chong said none of Salleh's allegations of inadequate legal assistance passed muster.

He added: "The court takes an extremely dim view of such ill-founded and spurious allegations against former counsel, wielded opportunistically to raise doubts about the propriety of the applicant's conviction and/or sentence."

Justice Chong said the appellate courts will not hesitate to order legal costs against those who persist in making unsustainable and unfounded allegations against their former lawyers.