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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Singapore
Index
Prosecution of criminal cases was the responsibility of
the
Office of the Attorney General. The attorney general was
appointed
by the president on the advice of the prime minister.
Public
prosecutors were attorneys appointed by the Public Service
Commission to advise police on the law in criminal matters
and to
present the government's case against the defendant.
Criminal cases
in which the maximum sentence did not exceed three years
were
referred to magistrates' courts, while more serious
offenses were
assigned to the district courts. There also was one
Juvenile Court,
which handled cases that involved children under the age
of
sixteen. Criminal cases appealed to the Supreme Court went
through
a three-stage process. Judges known as judicial
commissioners
eliminated cases that did not meet legal criteria for
appeal. The
High Court of the Supreme Court heard all cases appealed
from a
district court in which the convicted criminal received
the death
sentence and also selected cases approved by the judicial
commissioners. The High Court also had unlimited original
jurisdiction for cases deemed important to the state. The
Court of
Criminal Appeal was the final arbiter in criminal cases
where the
interpretation of law was subject to question.
Data as of December 1989
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