AI watches Jeyaretnam's hearing

AI watches Jeyaretnam's hearing

SINGAPORE (AFP): Amnesty International is sending a Canadian lawyer to Singapore to monitor a last-ditch legal appeal by opposition MP J.B. Jeyaretnam to save his political career, the embattled politician said Saturday.

Jeyaretnam will be expelled from parliament if he loses an appeal on Monday against a bankruptcy order.

He has offered to pay off the 175,513 Singapore dollars (US$95,900) debt in three installments over 18 months, but has received no response from the eight claimants.

Jeyaretnam, a colorful opposition figurehead who provides Singapore politics with a rare dissenting voice, said Canadian barrister Howard Rubin would act as an observer for Amnesty International and Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada.

Rubin will attend Monday's hearing and another two days later when Jeyaretnam appeals against the refusal to dismiss a defamation action against him by Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founding leader and now senior minister.