18 Facts About Eugene Thuraisingam

Eugene Singarajah Thuraisingam was born on 10 June 1975 and is a Singaporean lawyer.

Eugene Thuraisingam is the founder of the law firm Eugene Thuraisingam LLP, a law firm that specialises in international arbitration and criminal and commercial litigation.

Eugene Thuraisingam is known for his advocacy of human rights and for his opposition of the death penalty in Singapore.

In relation to his domestic practice as a criminal lawyer in Singapore, Thuraisingam has defended many alleged suspects in high profile criminal trials, including those who were dissidents and critics of the government of Singapore.

Eugene Thuraisingam, who was born in Singapore in 1975, attended Anglo-Chinese School and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the National University of Singapore, where he was placed on the Dean's List in his final year of study.

Eugene Thuraisingam intends for this to be an annual event to raise funds for LSPBS.

In May 2019, Thuraisingam represented Malaysian drug trafficker Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam in his appeal for re-sentencing.

Nagaenthran, who was on death row since 2010 for trafficking over 42g of heroin, submitted his appeal for re-sentencing after the 2013 changes to the death penalty laws, and in the appeal, Eugene Thuraisingam argued that Nagaenthran has low IQ and was thus intellectually disabled, therefore qualifying his for the defence of diminished responsibility and the death penalty should be commuted to life imprisonment.

In July 2019, Eugene Thuraisingam represented former property agent Teo Ghim Heng, who was charged with the murders of his pregnant wife Choong Pei Shan and their daughter Zi Ning at their Woodlands flat during the final week before the Chinese New Year of 2017.

In November 2019, Eugene Thuraisingam represented Ridzuan Mega Abdul Rahman, an unemployed man who was jointly charged with his wife Azlin Arujunah for abusing and murdering his five-year-old son, who was fatally scalded to death after four scalding incidents over a week leading up to the boy's death.

Eugene Thuraisingam presented evidence of Ridzuan having low IQ and intermittent explosive disorder among several psychiatric disorders to support his client's defence of diminished responsibility, and made arguments to create reasonable doubt over whether Ridzuan had knowledge that his scalding of his child would lead to the boy's death.

Later on, Eugene Thuraisingam help represent Ridzuan during the hearing of the prosecution's appeal, and he objected to the imposition of life imprisonment on Ridzuan on account of his young age and low functioning, which were factors that were in favour of leniency in his case.

Eugene Thuraisingam took charge of defending Ahmad Muin Yaacob, a Malaysian cleaner charged with murdering his supervisor Maimunah Awang at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal and stealing her jewellery for money to cover his wedding expenses in November 2016.

Eugene Thuraisingam argued that Ahmed suffered from diminished responsibility because his adjustment disorder led to a substantial impairment of his mental faculties at the time of the offence, and even argued that he was provoked by Nurhidayati's alleged insults before the killing.

Eugene Thuraisingam continued to represent Ahmed in his appeal, and argued for the reduction of his murder conviction, but the murder conviction and death sentence were both upheld by the Court of Appeal.

Eugene Thuraisingam is said to have intended to bring home the point that the rich and powerful people in Singapore did not care about the unfairness of the mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking as most of the people facing the death penalty come from very poor backgrounds.

Nevertheless, Eugene Thuraisingam was fined a further S$5,000 by the Law Society for penning the poem.

In 2016, Eugene Thuraisingam received the Legal Assistance Scheme for Capital Offences award from Sundaresh Menon, the Chief Justice of Singapore, for his work in defending accused persons in death penalty cases.