Subhas Anandan has become one of Singapore's best known criminal defense lawyers, building a reputation for his willingness to take on almost any kind of client.

"These are complex cases. Some would say 'no hopers,' but even people who commit the most heinous crimes must be given an even break," Anandan says when asked to describe his criteria for picking clients.

Yet there is one class he avoids -- political activists. "Now I am married and I am a father, so I avoid politics," the 54-year-old lawyer says.

Opposition forces contend government leaders keep a firm grip on this Southeast Asian city-state by using the legal system to quash dissent, relying on big defamation suits to keep critics quiet. Those sued often complain they can't find a lawyer to defend their cases.

Anandan didn't always avoid political cases.

In the late 1980s he acted as junior counsel for Joshua Jeyaretnam, the godfather of Singapore's meager political opposition. Jeyaretnam faced criminal charges concerning alleged irregularities in the collection of party funds.

Anandan's team lost the case in Singapore. But the verdict was appealed to London -- at the time home to Singapore's highest court of appeal -- and the ruling was overturned.

Anandan is not alone in his desire to avoid political cases.

"No lawyer in Singapore wants to do political cases," said Jeyaretnam, who calls Anandan a "very good friend."

"It's a very sad commentary. Lawyers here are too scared for their own livelihood," said Jeyaretnam, himself a lawyer who has been sued by the prime minister and other senior politicians.

Lawyers fear that if they take on a political client, they may not have their licenses renewed, said Chee Soon Juan, an opposition leader who has had trouble finding local representation in a defamation suit filed against him by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.

Chee has had to look abroad for legal help. However, those lawyers -- two from Australia and one from Hong Kong -- have so far been denied Singapore government permission to represent him in court.

Whatever the reasons, Anandan focuses on criminal cases on this island of 4 million people.

His profile has grown internationally since he agreed to defend Julia Suzanne Bohl, a young German who narrowly escaped facing the gallows recently when she was arrested on drug trafficking charges. The charges were reduced to a non-capital offense when drugs found in her apartment were determined to be less than pure.

The case cast the spotlight on Singapore's policy of executing drug traffickers, particularly in Germany, which doesn't have the death penalty.

Anandan currently has five other high-profile cases on his plate, including that of Ng Hua Chye, a 47-year-old tour guide who last year confessed to beating his 19-year-old Indonesian maid to death. He faces death by hanging if convicted of murder.

Anandan also represents Lam Chen Fong, 29, who has been charged with stealing US$4.92 million from hundreds of Chinese construction workers who thought they were sending their hard-earned savings home through his remittance business.

The lawyer says he doesn't harbor religious or moral bias when it comes to defending a client. He notes that while his firm's founder, Harry Elias, is Jewish and he himself is Hindu, the law firm took on the case of a suspected Muslim extremist earlier this year.

Mohamed Nazir Mohamed Uthman, 27, was among 13 people with suspected al-Qaida ties who were arrested in December for allegedly plotting to blow up the US Embassy and other buildings in Singapore.

They are being held indefinitely under the Internal Security Act, and the government has not yet said what charges, if any, will be filed against them.

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