Alleged mastermind of global football match-fixing ring released from detention

Singapore includes a regulation which allows long detention of alleged thieves without trial.

A Singaporean man detained for more than two years under suspicion of being the mastermind behind a global football match-fixing syndicate is to be released after a court ruled he was being held unlawfully.

The 51-year-old Tan, also known as Tan Seet Eng, had filed a legal challenge against his detention almost one year after his arrest. The orders are up to a year and reviewed annually.

“FIFA is very disappointed with the Singaporean Court of Appeal’s decision to release Mr Tan given the gravity of his past activities relating to match manipulation”, said football’s governing body in a statement sent to Reuters.

“Match manipulation is a threat that undermines the integrity and credibility of football at different levels of the game”.

“While, as we have noted, these acts are reprehensible and should not be condoned, there is nothing to suggest whether (or how) these activities could be thought to have a bearing on the public safety, peace and good order within Singapore”.

A Singapore judge has requested the guy supposed by Interpol to become the mastermind behind a worldwide soccer match’s launch band. He is also being tried in a Hungarian court for allegedly manipulating 32 games in Hungary, Italy and Finland.

Dressed in purple prison overalls as he sat in the dock yesterday morning, a gaunt Mr Tan appeared calm when he heard the judges’ decision.

“My client is relieved and grateful to the court for having come to this fair conclusion”, his lawyer Hamidul Haq told the Straits Times newspaper.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Italian prosecutor Roberto di Martino – who was leading an inquiry into global match-fixing – called Tan’s release “strange”, adding that “as far as I’m concerned there’s an abundance of proof”. “It has been proven true today through the court judgment”, he said.