In March, the nation reacted in anger and sadness over the plight of Dominique Sarron Lee’s family, who lost a court case with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
In 2012, Lee had collapsed with breathing difficulties during a training exercise when he was a 21-year-old national serviceman, and died later on from an allergic reaction to smoke grenades deployed. His family sued the SAF for negligence, but it ended against their favour after the High Court threw the suit out.
The case grew to nationwide prominence after Lee’s mother wrote a defeated plea of sorts following the depressing end to the long-drawn out saga.
Even though Lee’s platoon commander Captain Najib Hanuk Muhammad Jalal and the training exercise’s chief of safety officer Captain Chia Thye Siong escaped criminal conviction, both were punished according to military law with fines and delays in promotions.
Months after the outcome of the case, presiding Judicial Commissioner Kannan Ramesh outlined why exactly he threw out the suit back in March — the officers had “statutory immunity” against legal action apparently.
JC Ramesh’s clarification was released yesterday, Channel NewsAsia reports. A particular highlight of his report was that the both officers were executing their duties in the conduct of the exercise — hereby immunising them from any liability.
Under the Government Proceedings Act, members of the SAF “are not burdened by the prospect of legal action while training or while conducting operations”.
The immunity applies even though they detonated six smoke grenades instead of the regular two. Lee’s death was a result of his acute allergic reaction to the inhalation of zinc chloride fumes released from the smoke grenades.
To the credit of the Ministry of Defence and the officers’ lawyers, they waived the legal costs borne by Lee’s family in the lawsuit. We doubt JC Ramesh’s clarification would ease their hearts though.
