31 year-old former US Navy Seal Ian Damery Fitzgerald was convicted of punching a taxi driver and hurling the cabby's walkie-talkie into Marina Bay in Singapore last year. He was sentenced to four weeks' jail and fined $800 on 2 November 2015.

On 31 May last year, he and his girlfriend Ms Erin Alexander who had been drinking hailed for a taxi by standing in the middle of the lane. When he managed to stop one taxi driven by Mr Lim Chin Sheng near Marina Boulevard at about 12.50AM, the frightened Mr Lim fled the taxi but ended up getting into a confrontation with Ian Fitzgerald.

In court, the 1.9m tall Fitzgerald denied hitting the cabby and throwing the walkie-talkie into the sea. He claimed that he threw Mr Lim's mobile phone onto a grass patch to diffuse the situation.

Some months after his conviction and pending jail sentence, Mr Fitzgerald has come out with his side of the story and accused the courts of being biased and arbitrary. Read his account here, which was originally posted on Reddit .

"I don't like breaking rule number 2, and my personal life really has nothing to do with this sub, but I've been thinking about this for a while now and circumstances being what they are....

For those of you who don't know, my name is Ian Fitzgerald.

I've had the time to mod this sub and pass on what little advice I have because for the past two years, I've been in Singapore, dealing with charges of VCH (assault) and Mischief.1 Charges which are complete bullshit, but that I was convicted of this past Nov/Dec anyway.

This Friday, my appeal will be seen in the High Court. The Judge originally assigned to see the appeal was replaced a few weeks ago by the one Judge I was told we would have no possible chance of success with. I've checked his record myself, and that assessment seems to be fair. So it looks like, Friday I go to prison.

This experience has been so goddamned frustrating, I'm losing my mind. Being accused of a crime you're innocent of is bad enough, but far worse is being called a liar and having the authorities twist reality in the most insanely stupid ways to discredit and convict you.

I'm bringing all this up for a few reasons.

First, for transparency. I made a stupid opsec mistake a few months ago, posting with the wrong account and a couple people caught it. Seems like they've sat on that info since then (thanks for that), but it's only a matter of time before it spreads anyway. This way you know what's going on with the sub. My departure has nothing to do with NSW and BCF who had other independent reasons. I'll probably be back in a month or so, albeit less frequently.

Second, because I'll feel better about having lost the last two years of my life if some lessons are learned from it.

Third, even though it's got nothing to do with the sub, it's a shame to let a good story go to waste.

Fourth, because fuck them. They can control the narrative in this country because the same people who own the courts own the press, but I'm not going quietly. My trial was an absolute abortion of justice. I'm going to make sure that people know what they did.

And the fifth and final reason, if I end up Shane Todded in a prison cell, avenge me.

So that's the deal. To hell with Singapore.

0B0miGRQ7uoczSmdTQlBEdTJjSFU If any of you want to have a look through the case file and throw in your two cents. Here it is: https://drive.google.com/open?id=

I've poured over it repeatedly, but fresh eyes and all that."

Ian Damery Fitzgerald

A.S.S. Contributor