Former NKF CEO's admission to impact criminal trial
By May Wong, Channel NewsAsia Posted: 11 January 2007 2139 hrs
SINGAPORE: Lawyers observing the NKF civil trial say the former CEO's concession will have an impact on the criminal case, but the question on how much of an influence remains to be seen.
In fact, a criminal trial may not even take place.
Many are wondering if the NKF civil trial will see another twist when court proceedings resume on Friday, after a break on Thursday, as lawyers sort out their documents.
Now that the former CEO TT Durai has thrown in the towel, will the three other defendants follow suit?
"I supposed they've taken a day to think back on whether or not his concession would affect their case adversely, whether it's worth going on their own defences but that's the first thing we'll find out when we come back tomorrow," said Shashi Nathan, Lawyer, Harry Elias Partnership.
Another thing to look out for is whether a criminal trial will indeed take place and for how long.
Lawyers say the civil and criminal suits are very different.
For a civil case, the parties have to show enough evidence to put forward their case. But for a criminal case, it's about proving beyond any reasonable doubt that a person is guilty. The penalties too are different.
"Throwing in the towel on this whole matter really means paying sums of monies in the form of damages. How much of this is yet to be seen, but throwing in the towel in a criminal matter really means losing his liberty, one going to jail. So the considerations of how one decides to progress with the charges against him in the criminal matter is completely different," said Krishnan Nadarajan, Lawyer, Tan, Lim and Wong.
A criminal trial after the civil one may also stretch over a long period of time.
"Unlike a civil trial, there's no affidavit evidence. Evidence will have to be elicited orally from all the witnesses. There's no discovery in a criminal trial. So either the prosecution or the defence, if they want to introduce a document, they would have to introduce it, as the evidence was solicited. So it would take somewhat longer to go through and plough through all the documents in a criminal trial," said Shashi Nathan.
Durai may likely have to fork out about $4m of donations which NKF might have lost because of this, over $5m which NKF paid out for services it never received and over $550,000 for Durai's lawyers after his concession.
Lawyers say there may be more when an assessment of damages is done at a later stage. - CNA /dt
SINGAPORE: Lawyers observing the NKF civil trial say the former CEO's concession will have an impact on the criminal case, but the question on how much of an influence remains to be seen.
In fact, a criminal trial may not even take place.
Many are wondering if the NKF civil trial will see another twist when court proceedings resume on Friday, after a break on Thursday, as lawyers sort out their documents.
Now that the former CEO TT Durai has thrown in the towel, will the three other defendants follow suit?
"I supposed they've taken a day to think back on whether or not his concession would affect their case adversely, whether it's worth going on their own defences but that's the first thing we'll find out when we come back tomorrow," said Shashi Nathan, Lawyer, Harry Elias Partnership.
Another thing to look out for is whether a criminal trial will indeed take place and for how long.
Lawyers say the civil and criminal suits are very different.
For a civil case, the parties have to show enough evidence to put forward their case. But for a criminal case, it's about proving beyond any reasonable doubt that a person is guilty. The penalties too are different.
"Throwing in the towel on this whole matter really means paying sums of monies in the form of damages. How much of this is yet to be seen, but throwing in the towel in a criminal matter really means losing his liberty, one going to jail. So the considerations of how one decides to progress with the charges against him in the criminal matter is completely different," said Krishnan Nadarajan, Lawyer, Tan, Lim and Wong.
A criminal trial after the civil one may also stretch over a long period of time.
"Unlike a civil trial, there's no affidavit evidence. Evidence will have to be elicited orally from all the witnesses. There's no discovery in a criminal trial. So either the prosecution or the defence, if they want to introduce a document, they would have to introduce it, as the evidence was solicited. So it would take somewhat longer to go through and plough through all the documents in a criminal trial," said Shashi Nathan.
Durai may likely have to fork out about $4m of donations which NKF might have lost because of this, over $5m which NKF paid out for services it never received and over $550,000 for Durai's lawyers after his concession.
Lawyers say there may be more when an assessment of damages is done at a later stage. - CNA /dt
posted by khimsiu at 10:55 PM
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