Kangaroo Court - Australia

[limpeh]

If he's in Singapore, he would be long be hanged and not wasting tax payers monies.



http://news.asiaone.com/News/the+Straits+Times/Story/A1Story20081218-108626.html

Sydney murders: Ram Tiwary to face retrial


Thu, Dec 18, 2008
The Straits Times



By K. C. Vijayan, Law Correspondent

MORE than two years after he was locked away for life for murdering two fellow Singaporeans, former university student Ram Puneet Tiwary's conviction has been quashed by an Australian Court of Appeal.

The three-judge court in New South Wales upheld his appeal, declaring that the trial had been carried out improperly.

The judges ordered a re-trial, which means it is back to square one for the prosecution to prove that Tiwary murdered 26-year-old Tay Chow Lyang and 27-year-old Tan Poh Chuan in the Sydney apartment the three men shared.

REACTIONS FROM VICTIMS' FAMILIES
Distraught and disappointed

By Ben Nadarajan

TWO-and-a-half years ago, the families of the two men brutally battered and stabbed to death in their Sydney apartment in 2003 thought the killer had been locked away for good.

The last two years have been all about getting over their tragic losses.

But the fragile healing process was shattered yesterday when an appeal court in Sydney ordered a re-trial for Ram Puneet Tiwary.

REACTION FROM TIWARY'S FAMILY
'We still have a long way to go'

By K. C. Vijayan

RAM Tiwary's cousin said the appeal decision showed what the accused had been maintaining all along - his innocence.

Mr Ramesh Tiwary, a Singapore lawyer, said his cousin had been 'quietly optimistic' that things would work out and he would get a retrial, even as he served time in prison.

Tiwary is currently detained at a prison in Lithgow, about three hours' drive from Sydney. He has been in jail for more than four years.

About the case

TWO Singaporean men studying at the University of New South Wales in Sydney were found murdered in their apartment in September 2003.

The bodies of Mr Tony Tan Poh Chuan, 27, and Mr Tay Chow Lyang, 26, were found by their Singaporean flatmate Ram Puneet Tiwary, then 24.

Tiwary claimed he had been asleep that morning and woke to find his two friends dead. Police arrested him for the double murders only eight months later.

The jury system

SINGAPORE no longer uses jury trials, but it is still a commonly used practice in countries such as Australia, Britain and the United States.

A jury consists of about 12 members of the public randomly chosen from the electoral roll.

In these trials, the judge's role is to decide on matters of law such as whether a certain piece of evidence should be allowed to be used in the trial.

 

[VIBGYOR]

The Electric New Paper :
SYDNEY DOUBLE MURDER
VAMPIRE MURDERER?
Nicknames, gambling & gay relationship allegations raised in court
SINGAPOREAN student Ram Puneet Tiwary used to be up all night and slept during most of the day.
26 September 2005

He liked to party and slept all day, Sydney court told.

SINGAPOREAN student Ram Puneet Tiwary used to be up all night and slept during most of the day.

Like vampires, Tiwary's name is linked to blood - he is accused of murdering his fellow Singaporean flatmates in September 2003.

In fact, a paramedic who arrived at the scene of the murders said he had seen blood on Tiwary's hands.

Singaporean Lee Kay Meng, who has known Ram Tiwary for several years, said he earned the nickname 'Vampire' because he liked to sleep in late after studying through the night.

Both were studying in Sydney on scholarships from the Singapore Armed Forces and had gone to parties and the casino together.

On Friday, a Sydney court decided that Tiwary will have to stand trial for the brutal killing of 27-year-old Tony Tan Poh Chuan and 26-year-old Tay Chow Lyang, in the flat they shared near the University of New South Wales.

Crown Prosecutor John Cline said Tiwary, 26, even forged his girlfriend's results and passed them off as his own.

'He lived a party life and slept all day. Wasn't he supposed to be going to lectures?', Mr Cline asked.

Tiwary's trial will start next year and more details of the horror killings and his lifestyle are expected to be revealed.

The police allege that around noon on 15 Sep, 2003, Tiwary bludgeoned Mr Tay with a baseball bat.

He then took a kitchen knife and stabbed Mr Tay a number of times. After he had placed a chair in the lounge to block the view of the body, he took a shower.

But Tiwary's lawyer disputed this, saying he did not shower and that no trace of blood was found on any of the towels in the house.

Some time later, Mr Tan walked into the house.

He is said to have been at a lecture until 1.45pm that day.

According to the police, he was attacked by Tiwary as he walked through the front door and discovered Mr Tay's body.

Tiwary is alleged to have hit Mr Tan on the face, smashing his glasses and knocking out several teeth.

Mr Tan ran back to the front door to escape. But he was again allegedly beaten - this time on the head with the bat - and then stabbed.

While Mr Tan is said to have died soon afterwards, a pathologist who conducted autopsies on the two bodies, told the court that Mr Tay may have remained alive for two hours after he was attacked.

But Tiwary had a different story to tell. He said he had received a telephone call from his girlfriend at 6.30am on the morning of the murders, got up, had breakfast and then returned to bed.

BLOOD ALL OVER

A highly emotional Tiwary told the emergency operator over the phone that he had been woken up by a screaming noise and opened the bedroom door to find two dead bodies and a baseball bat on the floor.

Tiwary made the call from his bedroom, telling the operator that there has been a murder and he needed an ambulance.

He said there was blood all over the place and that two of his friends were dead.

When the operator asked him whether his friends were definitely dead or whether they were unconscious, he again said that there was blood all over the place and that he could not tell whether they were dead.

The operator wanted to know whether Tiwary's friends were shot or stabbed.

'No, there's a baseball bat and a knife there.

'They're bashed in completely. Yes, there's a knife lying on the ground as well,' he replied.

During the call, the operator asked Tiwary whether there was anyone else in the house.

His reply: 'Unless he's in one of the other bedroom, I don't know. But I have got a bat with me...'

Just before the conversation ended, the operator asked Tiwary if he was holding the baseball bat, and if so, to put it down.

The court heard that when it comes to personal security, especially among students, baseball bats are often the weapon of choice.

Media reports have it that Tiwary's family in Singapore is said to be concerned about his mental health and is said to have hired a forensic psychologist to examine him.

His cousin Ramesh Tiwary, a lawyer, while giving evidence, criticised the police and prosecution for being slow in calling witnesses.

A few other Singaporeans gave evidence.

Mr Lee was one of them. Although they had gone to casinos together, he said Tiwary did not have a gambling problem, although he once lost A$900 ($1,160) on a single visit a few weeks before the murders.

Another Singaporean, Mr Chaw Bak You, a friend of Mr Tay, said under cross-examination that Mr Tay was careful with his money and took note of people who owed him large sums.

He said Mr Tay had a stuck a note on the back of the apartment's front door about a sum of money a former housemate, Mr Vincent Tsang, owed him. Mr Tsang, a Taiwanese, had moved out of the apartment before the murder.

CLOSE RELATIONSHIP

A hint of a gay relationship also reared its head during the cross-examination.

Mr Chaw told the court that another friend, Mr Alan Wong, had a close relationship with Mr Tay.

He said he had seen Mr Wong frequently touching Mr Tay and that Mr Tay's wife was jealous of Mr Wong.

On Friday, the final day of the nine-day preliminary hearing, the prosecutor told the court that Tiwary had done badly in his studies and had fallen behind on his rent.

But his defence lawyer said the case against him was based largely on speculation, which included allegations that he had an argument with his flatmates over his delay in paying his share of the rent.