The Singapore Court of Appeal has ordered the release of the alleged mastermind behind a global football match-fixing ring, ruling the detention as unlawful.
Dan Tan, also known as Tan Seet Eng, was among the 14 people arrested in Singapore’s biggest crackdown on match-fixing in September 2013.
Tan was accused of being a mastermind of a crime syndicate that made its trade by fixing football matches around the world, including Italy’s Serie A and Serie B. He was also charged by a Hungarian court in May 2013 for the same offense.
The alleged match-fixing kingpin was detained under Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act, which allows the Minister of Home Affairs to detain suspects indefinitely without trial. The law is typically used against drug and illegal gambling bosses, loan sharks and members of underground syndicates.
Interpol Chief Ronald Noble touted Tan’s group as “the largest and most aggressive match-fixing syndicate, with tentacles reaching every continent.”
Tan’s lawyers, Hamidul Haq and Thong Chee Kun, challenged his continued detention, saying that it was illegally invoked as the alleged offences happened outside of Singapore’s jurisdiction.
A three-judge appeals court on Wednesday ruled that the detention was unlawful and there was nothing to suggest that Tan’s alleged overseas match-fixing activities jeopardized public safety, peace and good order in Singapore.
Tthe accusations against Tan, involving football matches in Egypt, South Africa, and Nigeria, set out few connections with Singapore and Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said that “the matches fixed, whether or not successfully, all took place beyond our shores.”
