Singapore to detain suspected global match-fixer
SINGAPORE: A Singaporean accused of leading the world’s largest football match-fixing syndicate was ordered to be detained without trial yesterday under a special law following his rearrest earlier this week, the interior ministry said.
Dan Tan, 51, will be held under a special law designed to keep suspected criminals under detention without having to charge them in court, the Ministry of Home Affairs said.
“The MHA confirmed that the Minister for Home Affairs has issued a detention order in respect of Dan Tan Seet Eng on 5 December 2015 for his involvement in global soccer matchfixing,” the statement said.
However, the detention is subject to an annual review.
Tan had been held for more than two years under the same law following his arrest in September 2013 but the Court of Appeal, the country’s highest court, ordered his release in late November, saying his detention had been “unlawful”.
The three-judge court had said that while match-fixing was “reprehensible and should not be condoned”, the alleged acts “all took place beyond our shores” and had no bearing on public safety in the city-state.
His release came under heavy criticism from football’s world governing body Fifa and analysts who said the move was a blow to efforts to eradicate corruption in the sport.
Police, however, re-arrested Tan about a week after he was freed to investigate his “suspected involvement in criminal activities”.
The home affairs ministry said yesterday that the new order to detain Tan “expressly sets out the grounds which show the extent of Dan Tan’s match-fixing activities from and within Singapore”.
“The grounds set out the seriousness of Dan Tan’s criminal activities over many years, their impact on public safety, peace and good order within Singapore, and the fact that he has intimidated witnesses to the extent that they continue to be unwilling to testify against him for fear of reprisal,” the ministry said.
After Tan’s first arrest in 2013, the then-Interpol chief Ronald Noble said the Singapore-based ring he allegedly led was the world’s “largest and most aggressive match-fixing syndicate, with tentacles reaching every continent”.
The home affairs ministry had earlier described Tan as “the leader and financier of a global criminal syndicate that conducted match-fixing operations out of Singapore”.