Singapore – Activist Jolovan Wham has been found guilty over an unlawful assembly outside the main entrance of the former States Courts building after he posted a photo of himself holding a piece of paper that said, “Drop the charges against Terry Xu and Daniel De Costa.”
He was in the venue to attend a court hearing for a criminal defamation case involving The Online Citizen editor Terry Xu and TOC contributor Daniel De Costa Augustin. The photo was eventually reposted on a HardwareZone forum, resulting in a police report lodged by a member of the public. “It does not constitute an offence under the because it’s not an assembly. It’s a photo-taking session, to put things simply,” said Eugene Thuraisingam, one of Wham’s lawyers.
“While he did not specifically draw anyone’s attention, I still note that there were passersby walking around, and there is a possibility that they could have seen what happened. I could not rule out that possibility,” said the officer.
“So even if they were to turn around and look towards Wham’s direction, they couldn’t have seen what was written on the sign.”