SINGAPORE: The editor of socio-political website The Online Citizen (TOC) and the author of one of its published articles will be charged on Thursday (Dec 13) with criminal defamation, the police said on Wednesday.
Terry Xu Yuan Chen, the 36-year-old editor of TOC, had been investigated over the publication of an article titled "The take away from Seah Kian Ping’s Facebook post", which alleged corruption within the Singapore Government’s highest officers and the tampering of the Constitution.
AdvertisementOn Oct 5, the Info-communications and Media Development Authority (IMDA) lodged a police report over the article. The police subsequently obtained search warrants to search the homes of Xu and Willy Sum, the alleged writer of the article, on Nov 20.
[h=3]READ: Police investigate The Online Citizen over 'serious allegations' made in article[/h]During their search of Sum's home, police found evidence that the article was not written by him, but instead by a 35-year-old man named De Costa Daniel Augustin, who had used Sum’s name, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said on Wednesday.
“Investigations suggest that De Costa had sent the article to The Online Citizen using Willy Sum’s email account without the consent of Willy Sum," the police said, adding that Xu published the article without verifying the identity of the author.
AdvertisementAdvertisementPolice then applied for a search warrant against De Costa on the same day. However, when they arrived at De Costa's residence at 2.50pm on Nov 20, they saw that he was about to leave for a flight due to take off at 3.45pm. De Costa’s house was then searched and electronic equipment seized.
Xu and De Costa will be charged with criminal defamation for the publication and authorship respectively of the article. If convicted, they may be fined, jailed for up to two years, or both.
In addition, De Costa will also be charged for unauthorised access to computer material for accessing and using Sum’s email account without consent. If convicted, he faces an additional fine of up to S$5000, two years' jail, or both.
TOC posted on Facebook on Wednesday that Xu has refused to sign the charge sheet as he did not want his signature to be taken as an admission of guilt.
Meanwhile, the police in their statement refuted allegations that they had over-reacted by seizing the electronic equipment of those involved in the investigation.
"As part of its investigations, the police had seized electronic equipment including laptops, mobile phones and hard drives from Xu and De Costa. This was necessary to secure and preserve evidence. The seizure of the electronic equipment from Xu and De Costa uncovered evidence pointing towards the identity of the true author of the article, in this case, De Costa," the police said in their release.
The police also responded to a post De Costa’s mother had made that the police had "unreasonably prevented De Costa from leaving Singapore for an overseas trip".
"The police had to act quickly as we had obtained information which suggested that De Costa was the true author of the offending article," they said.
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