Gopalan Nair, the Fremont immigration attorney and blogger who’s been detained for more than a month in his native Singapore, says in his most recent blog post that he was attacked by plain-clothed officers on July 4.

Nair, who rents an office directly above The Argus newsroom, was arrested on sedition charges in Singapore earlier this year after criticizing a judge on his blog, Singapore Dissident.
Here is an excerpt of his latest blog entry:

On July 4th, 2008, Independence Day, at about 11 pm, I was passing by Race Course Road Little India. I earlier had a small Scotch in celebration. And why not, it was after all the 4th of July, 2008, even if I was in Singapore. Just before reaching the junction of Bukit Timah Road, I hear loud calls asking me to stop. Looking back, I see about 4 people in civilian clothes. They confront me and ask who I was. And where I was going. Surely I have no reason to give any information. They appeared no better than thugs. Gangsters. I refused to give my name. Or any information.

The next minute, these cowardly unruly ill mannered ungentlemanly and gangster like persons in plain clothes, force me down to the floor. They man handle me. They hurt me. They shove my fact to the hard tarmac floor. They use their boots to kick me while I am in the floor. A Malay officer is especially brutal. He hurts me badly. They abuse me by calling me bastard and other dirty names. They intentionally cause sever pain and hurt me. And all for what? Just because I did not oblige them with my name? In the physical encounter, with about 10 policemen in plainclothes overcoming me, they have obviously won the physical fight. But in the moral question, they have failed miserably. They were thugs. Singapore government thugs. Lee Kuan Yew thugs. Another example of Lee’s first world country.