Alleged Singapore match-fixing 'mastermind' fails to overturn detention order

SINGAPORE - Singapore's high court has rejected an application by the alleged head of a global football match-fixing syndicate to review a detention order that has allowed him to be held for more than a year without charge, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

The local businessman, known as Tan Seet Eng or Dan Tan, was arrested in 2013 for his alleged role in trying to rig football matches. He had been labelled by Interpol as the "mastermind" of the world's most notorious match-fixing syndicate.

Tan, along with three other people, has been kept in prison in Singapore since October last year but is yet to be charged with an offence.

"Our application for the review of detention was dismissed," his lawyer Hamidul Haq told Reuters in an email.

Under Singapore's Criminal Law act, detention orders allow suspects to be held indefinitely, but have to be reviewed every 12 months. Tan's original order was extended last month.