Cheng’s court hearing this week

Press, 11 September 1989, Page 8

Cheng’s court hearing this week

By

RICHARD CRESSWELL

A Christchurch lawyer and a University of Canterbury chaplain will be in Singapore this week to attend a High Court hearing there.

Ms Carolyn Risk and the Rev. Dr James Stuart will be in Singapore to hear a case for a writ of habeas corpus by Mr Vincent Cheng. A spokesman for the emergency committee for human rights in Singapore, said Mr Cheng had been declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. Mr Cheng is the secretary of The Justice and Peac^ Commission of the Catholic Churih in Singapore,

and has been detained without trial in solitary confinement since May 21, 1987. He and 21 other church and community workers and lawyers were arrested in 1987 under Singapore’s Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for indefinite detention without trial.

Ms Risk will represent the International Commission of Jurists, based in Geneva, the New Zealand Law Society and the Canterbury District Law Society. Dr Stuart will represent the Conference of Churches in Aotearoa and the Uniting Church of Australia.

A spokesman for the emergency committee said this writ was the first time Mr Cheng had been able to bring his case out into the public arena.

He said the only way Mr Cheng could secure his release was by habeas corpus, a writ requesting the detainee to be brought before a judge to investigate arrest or detention.

Ms Risk and Dr Stuart are expected to return this Saturday. A columnist for “The Times,” of London, Bernard Levin, has announced his intention to publicise the imprisonment of Mr Cheng.