Fridae

A Singapore's has fined a prominent gay blogger and rights activist with a S$8,000 (US$5,800) fine for “scandalizing'' the judiciary by questioning its handling of two constitutional challenges to the city-state's anti-gay law.

The High Court fined Alex Au on March 4 for insinuating that a judge had manipulated court dates on a constitutional challenge to a law criminalizing sex between men. The Attorney-General's Chambers had asked for a fine of at least S$10,000.

“The 62-year-old blogger is one of the few dissidents who continually tests the limits of Singapore's closely policed media environment,” according to the Associated Press.

Media reported that Au apologized to the court and paid the fine. He would have been jailed if he failed or refused to pay the fine. “I have instructed my attorneys to file an appeal,'' Au told reporters.

Au was convicted over a 2013 blog piece for suggesting that the Chief Justice had manipulated court dates to two separate constitutional challenges against the Section 377A law that criminalises sex between men.

“One was by Mr Tan Eng Hong in 2010 after he was caught with another man in a toilet. The other, by gay couple Gary Lim and Kenneth Chee, was filed three months after Mr Tan was allowed to proceed in 2012. In his article, Au wrote that ‘strange calendaring’ allowed the couple's case to be heard first - and reach the Court of Appeal earlier - even though Mr Tan's challenge was launched ahead of it,” reported the straitstimes.com.

Au claimed this was because Justice Sundaresh Menon wanted to be on the three-judge Court of Appeal panel to hear both challenges against Section 377A but could not in the earlier case due to a conflict of interest because he was Singapore's attorney general when Tan's criminal case was before the courts.

The High Court had earlier ruled that Au was “guilty of scandalizing contempt'' for publishing the article on his Yawning Bread blog site. Au is openly gay and is well know for his blog Yawning Bread blog articles that are either about gay issues or tangentially touch on same-sex relations. He is also know for championing the repeal of the British colonial era Section 377A that criminalizes sex between men.

In October, the highest court in Singapore upheld that law when it rejected cases brought by three men who said Section 377A infringes their human rights under Singapore’s constitution.