Eugene Singarajah Thuraisingam (born 10 June 1975) is a lawyer from Singapore. He is the founder of the law firm Eugene Thuraisingam LLP, a law firm that specialises in international arbitration and criminal and commercial litigation. He is also 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. For his legal service for many defendants in the court of Singapore, Doyles Guide has named him as a leading criminal defence lawyer in Singapore in 2020.
Education and career
Thuraisingam, who was born in Singapore in 1975, attended Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) 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.
After he was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 2001, Thuraisingam practised law at Allen & Gledhill for nine years and at Stamford Law Corporation for another three years before he founded his own law firm, Eugene Thuraisingam LLP (ET LLP), in 2012.
ET LLP was named as one of the top two criminal law firms in Singapore in the inaugural Singapore's Best Law Firms 2021 undertaken by The Straits Times and German-based research firm Statista.
In 2021 and in conjunction of ET LLP's 9th anniversary and in partnership with the Law Society Pro Bono Services (LSPBS), SGD 100,000 was raised for LSPBS' campaign, 'inclusive justice', which supports LSPBS' court representation schemes for foreigners in areas of criminal legal aid, matrimonial matters and more. Thuraisingam intends for this to be an annual event to raise funds for LSPBS.
Cases taken by Thuraisingam
Nagaenthran Dharmalingam
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 (which allows life imprisonment for drug convicts with diminished responsibility), and in the appeal, 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. However, the psychiatrists from both the defence and prosecution confirmed that Nagaenthran was not intellectually disabled and he fully understood the full magnitude of his actions. Therefore he was denied re-sentencing by the Court of Appeal. Nagaenthran, who was later defended by another lawyer in his later appeals, was executed on 27 April 2022 despite international appeals for clemency.
Woodlands double murder
In July 2019, 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. Thuraisingam argued in the trial that Teo was suffering from major depressive disorder which impaired his mental responsibility during the commission of the offences, and he also put up the defence of sudden and grave provocation, since Teo recounted he was arguing violently with his wife over their precarious financial situation and Zi Ning's overdue school fees before he used a towel to strangle both Choong and Zi Ning. However, Teo was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, because both the High Court and Court of Appeal rejected Thuraisingam's arguments and Teo's defences, based on the fact that Teo knew perfectly what he was doing and his mental condition was normal and not impaired at the time he committed the murders.