SINGAPORE, Aug. 25 -- Three Singapore men, jailed three years for a murder they did not commit, lost a false arrest lawsuit against the government, the Straits Times newspaper reported Sunday. An appeals court ruled the mens' prosecution and detention were legitimate because they had confessed to the crime, and rejected their allegations that they had been tortured into confessing.
Zainal Kuning, 34, Mohamad Bashir Ismail, 29, and Salahuddin Ismail, 29, were detained for questioning after the murder of a 65-year-old coffee shop caretaker in February 1989. They were held until May 1992, when investigations showed 27-year-old laborer Mohamed Sulaiman Samsudin was the real killer. He was convicted in 1994. The three former suspects in June 1992 sued the government and an investigating police officer for false arrest and malicious prosecution. When their claims were dismissed in 1995, they appealed. But the three Singapore justices comprising the Court of Appeal ruled the mens' detention was lawful because another suspect, who acted as 'lookout man' during the murder, had named the three as suspects. The court also ruled the prosecution was not malicious because the three plaintiffs had confessed to the murder. Their claim they had confessed under torture during their interrogation was rejected because doctors who examined them had not reported evidence of mistreatment.
