Suspended activist lawyer Ravi Madasamy, widely known as M. Ravi, was found dead in the early hours of Dec 24.
Lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam, who had previously acted for Mr Ravi, said they were friends and that he was deeply saddened by the news. He said that although Mr Ravi faced many personal struggles, he remained deeply committed to the causes he believed in.
According to Mr Thuraisingam, the cases Mr Ravi argued played a significant role in shaping constitutional law in Singapore, and his contributions would be remembered within the legal profession. Lawyer Shashi Nathan also paid tribute, describing Mr Ravi, who was 56, as a good man who had made meaningful contributions to the law. While acknowledging that Mr Ravi was often controversial and unconventional, Mr Nathan said he believed Mr Ravi had good intentions and genuinely wanted the best for his clients. He added that Mr Ravi was fearless in his advocacy and frequently pushed legal boundaries.
In a 2005 interview, Mr Ravi shared that his father, who died in 2003, struggled with alcoholism and spent much of his life in and out of prison. His mother, who supported the family as a construction worker, died in 2000 at the age of 59. Mr Ravi was one of seven siblings.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from the National University of Singapore in 1993, Mr Ravi studied law in the United Kingdom and began legal practice in 1997.
He was a prominent critic of Section 377A, which criminalised sex between men, arguing that the law was discriminatory. In 2020, he described it as illogical to keep the law on the books when the Government’s stated position was that it would not be enforced for private, consensual acts between men. The law was eventually repealed by Parliament in 2022.
Mr Ravi was also involved in a high-profile case that ultimately spared his client, Malaysian national Gobi Avedian, from the death penalty. Gobi had been charged with importing 40.22g of heroin and was initially sentenced in 2017 to 15 years’ imprisonment and 10 strokes of the cane. After the prosecution successfully appealed, Gobi faced capital punishment. Mr Ravi later applied for a review in 2020, resulting in the death sentence being overturned and the original sentence reinstated.
Diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2006, Mr Ravi remained a polarising figure in the legal community. Courts had previously noted his history of disciplinary issues, which included making unfounded allegations against legal institutions, disruptive courtroom behaviour, and improper handling of clients.
Over the years, he received multiple sanctions ranging from fines to suspensions, and was struck off the roll of advocates and solicitors twice by the Court of Three Judges.
One case involved social media posts in August 2020 in which he made what the court described as false and unjustified attacks on then President Halimah Yacob, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and former prime minister Goh Chok Tong. In another incident in November 2021, he repeatedly interrupted a High Court judge, accused the judge of bias, and wrongly claimed that his client wished to withdraw a lawsuit.
Investigations later found that Mr Ravi had instructed a paralegal to write to the court stating that the client wanted him to continue acting, even though the client had already dismissed him.
At the time of his death, Mr Ravi was serving a five-year suspension – the maximum penalty allowed – for making serious and unfounded allegations against the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Law Society. These stemmed from remarks made to the socio-political site The Online Citizen and posts on Facebook following a Court of Appeal decision in 2020.
Mr Ravi was also active in politics and contested the 2015 general election under the Reform Party. He ran against Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Ang Mo Kio GRC and lost, securing 21.36 per cent of the vote. This remains a developing story.
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23 Dec 2025 19:37
