Suspended Singapore lawyer M. Ravi found deceased Dec 24. Colleagues remember his constitutional impact.
PETALING JAYA: Ravi Madasamy, the Singaporean suspended activist lawyer widely known as M. Ravi, died in the early morning of December 24, 2025. He was 56-years-old.
Singaporean authorities are looking into the circumstances surrounding his death, which has been classified as unnatural, according to reports.
The news has prompted an outpouring of tributes from Singapore’s legal community, with colleagues reflecting on his significant, if controversial, career.
Eugene Thuraisingam, a lawyer who had both represented and befriended Ravi, expressed profound sadness at the loss.
According to Straits Times, Eugene characterised Mr Ravi as someone who faced personal challenges but remained steadfast in his advocacy work, noting that his legal arguments contributed meaningfully to the development of constitutional law in Singapore.
Another legal professional, Shashi Nathan told the Singapore daily, he will remember Ravi as someone who often challenged conventional approaches and wasn’t afraid to advocate vigorously for his clients. While acknowledging that Mr Ravi could be polarising, Nathan emphasised his belief that the lawyer possessed genuine compassion and commitment to those he represented.
Born into difficult circumstances, Ravi overcame significant hardship to build his legal career. In 2005, he reportedly revealed that his father struggled with alcoholism and spent considerable time incarcerated before dying in 2003. His mother, who worked in construction to support their family of seven children, passed away in 2000.
After earning his Bachelor of Arts from the National University of Singapore in 1993, Ravi pursued legal studies in Britain and began practicing law in Singapore in 1997.
Ravi became particularly known for his constitutional challenges, most notably his opposition to Section 377A of Singapore’s Penal Code, legislation that criminalised sexual relations between men. In a 2020 case, he challenged the law’s continued existence despite government assurances of non-enforcement for private, consensual acts.
Parliament ultimately repealed the statute in 2022, marking a significant shift in Singapore’s legal landscape on this issue.
Ravi’s career was marked by both achievement and difficulty. He publicly disclosed his bipolar disorder diagnosis in 2006, a condition that affected various aspects of his professional life.
In Malaysia, he was well known for defending numerous Malaysian drug traffickers facing the death penalty, including high-profile cases like Yong Vui Kong (whose sentence was commuted) and Nagaenthran Dharmalingam (who was executed), as well as advocating for changes in Singapore’s strict capital punishment laws, challenging human rights issues like judicial caning, and securing commutations for inmates like Cheong Chun Yin, making him a significant figure in Malaysia-Singapore death penalty disputes.Â
Throughout his career, he faced multiple disciplinary actions stemming from various incidents, including making unsubstantiated public statements about government figures and judicial proceedings, courtroom disruptions, and client management issues. These resulted in penalties ranging from fines to practice suspensions.
Most recently, he had been serving a five-year suspension—the maximum allowed—following findings that he made serious unfounded allegations against Singapore’s Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Law Society. These allegations appeared in statements to media outlets and on social media following a 2020 appeal court decision.
Singaporean judges had struck him from the rolls over separate matters, including inappropriate social media posts about senior government leaders in 2020, and disrupting court proceedings in 2021 while representing a client in a labor dispute.
Beyond his legal practice, Ravi engaged in Singapore’s political process. He contested the 2015 general election as a Reform Party candidate in Ang Mo Kio GRC, securing approximately 21 percent of votes in a constituency that included then-Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Earlier in his career, he represented Singapore Democratic Party leader Chee Soon Juan and family members in a defamation case brought by senior government figures.
Ravi’s death represents the loss of a complex figure who left an indelible mark on Singapore’s legal and constitutional discourse, even as his career was shadowed by personal struggles and professional controversies.
