Warrant of arrest issued for Lim Tean after he fails to surrender to begin jail term

SINGAPORE: An arrest warrant has been issued for lawyer Lim Tean after he failed to report for the start of his jail term.

The 61-year-old Singaporean was supposed to surrender on Monday (Aug 3) to serve a jail term of three months and one week for practising law without a valid certificate.

Mr Revi Shanker, Lim's lawyer, confirmed with CNA on Tuesday that Lim was supposed to surrender in the State Courts by noon the day before (Aug 3), but he did not show up.

Mr Shanker said he tried contacting Lim but he was uncontactable. He also said Lim's bailor was unable to contact Lim.

A warrant of arrest was therefore issued on Monday, said Mr Shanker.

He added that this was "very unlike him" and said he did not know whether Lim was in hospital.

Lim, who is also an opposition politician, had told a court in January that he had a condition known as status migrainosus, which afflicted him with severe daily migraines, and had been warded twice in hospital.

A spokesperson from the Singapore courts told CNA on Tuesday that Lim had originally been directed to surrender at 12pm on Jul 20 to begin his jail term.

However, on Jul 17, the Court of Appeal approved a request from Lim to defer his sentence and ordered him to surrender at 12pm on Aug 3 instead.

The spokesperson said Lim did not surrender at that time, and the warrant of arrest was issued.

According to court records, Lim was due to attend a pre-trial conference on Aug 4 for outstanding charges against him.

However, this has been changed to a warrant to arrest review fixed for Aug 17.

According to the spokesperson, this hearing is also for the bailor to show cause or present a case as to why Lim's bail sum should not be forfeited.

Lim was convicted in July 2024 by Senior District Judge Ong Hian Sun after a trial.

His original sentence was six weeks' jail and a S$1,000 (US$780) fine, but that was increased to three months and one week after a judge agreed with the prosecution that his original sentence was "manifestly inadequate".

Lim was declared bankrupt in April. In the same month, he was also fined S$30,000 over his conduct in handling a former client’s money.

Lim is the founder of Peoples Voice (PV) and secretary-general of the People's Alliance for Reform, an alliance of opposition parties. 

At last year's General Election, Lim came third in a three-cornered contest in Potong Pasir SMC, behind the People's Action Party's Alex Yeo and the Singapore People's Party's Williamson Lee.