Cybercrime suspect fails in appeal to challenge police’s seizure of his belongings

Singapore's highest court has dismissed a challenge by suspected cybercriminal Wang Yunhe against the police's seizure of his belongings. The Court of Appeal ruled that the legal process Wang used to contest the seizure was "fundamentally flawed" and rejected his contention that the seizure was unlawful. Wang, a Chinese national, is accused of creating and distributing malware that compromised millions of computers worldwide.

He faces extradition to the United States and was arrested in Singapore in May 2024. During his arrest, 50 items were seized by the police, including bank cards, mobile phones, flash drives, a laptop, and a computer processing unit. Wang filed an application in February 2025 to challenge the seizure, arguing that the request from the US was too vague and that there was no evidence to support the police's reasonable suspicion that the items were evidence or fruits of the crimes.

However, his application was dismissed by a magistrate and a High Court judge, who stated that the magistrate had no jurisdiction to hear the application, as it was essentially a judicial review request to challenge the police's seizure. The judges noted that Wang's application was filed nearly nine months after the seizure, which meant he was out of time to bring a judicial review application.

The court also emphasized that Wang should have first filed an application for criminal revision before invoking the judicial review process. Wang's extradition request was facilitated by the Extradition Act, which primarily allows authorities to rely on information provided by the requesting state, unless there is clear evidence that the information is incorrect or the items have no connection to the alleged offenses.