XU YUANCHEN v PUBLIC PROSECUTOR

Case Significance

Xu Yuanchen v Public Prosecutor [2024] SGCA 17 was decided by the Singapore Court of Appeal on 20 May 2024 in Criminal Motion No 28 of 2023. The grounds of decision were delivered by Andrew Phang Boon Leong SJ, sitting with Sundaresh Menon CJ and Tay Yong Kwang JCA, after a hearing on 26 March 2024. The application concerned a criminal reference, with the underlying matter touching on criminal defamation and the constitutional freedom of expression. The court observed that applications for criminal references are, by their very nature, rare, and that when made they rarely succeed in obtaining the leave of the court for the alleged questions of law of public interest to be heard. It noted that an applicant would already have exhausted the legal right of appeal, and referred to Mohammad Faizal bin Sabtu and another v Public Prosecutor and another matter [2013] 2 SLR 141 at [21] and Kho Jabing v Public Prosecutor [2016] 3 SLR 135 at [47], emphasising that a liberal construction of s 397 of the Criminal Procedure Code 2010 (2020 Rev Ed) would seriously undermine the one-tier appeal system and the interests of finality. The applicant, Xu Yuanchen, was represented by Choo Zheng Xi of RCL Chambers Law Corporation, and the respondent by the Attorney-General's Chambers.