US blogger to be tried for insulting Singapore judges

By Agence France-Presse SINGAPORE - A US national said Tuesday he will be tried in Singapore next month for allegedly insulting two judges who had presided over cases involving an op position leader. Gopalan Nair, a former Singaporean lawyer who is now a US citizen, told Agence France-Presse he has not yet hired a lawyer to represent him in the trial from September 8 to 19. "At this moment, I am representing myself," he said. Nair faces two charges of insulting judges on his blog. Each charge carries a j ail term of up to one year, S$5,000 fine (US$3,676) or both. In the first charge, he is accused of insulting Justice Belinda Ang, who presid ed over a defamation case where Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew and hi s son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong testified against the leader of the opposi tion Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). Nair, 58, alleged that Ang was "prostituting herself during the entire proceedi ngs by being nothing more than an employee of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his son and c arrying out their orders," a court document said. In the second charge, Nair is alleged to have sent an e-mail to Supreme Court J ustice Lai Siu Chiu in 2006 saying he has "no shame" and that judges "are selli ng their souls and their conscience for money," according to a court document. Nair allegedly sent the e-mail on the day Lai sentenced SDP secretary general C hee Soon Juan to a one-day jail term and fined him for contempt of court. Nair said he is currently free on bail of $5,000.