Edited photo of former minister lands man in court
In what is probably the first case of its kind in Singapore, a man is standing trial for posting an edited photo of a soldier pointing a pistol at a former deputy prime minister, reported The Straits Times (ST).
Gary Yue Mun Yew, 36, allegedly doctored a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken by Eddie Adams showing a Vietnamese general executing a Viet Cong officer in 1968 by superimposing the head of former DPM Wong Kan Seng onto the Viet Cong’s body then used the image as his Facebook display picture in mid-2010, said ST.
[See the original photo]
Today newspaper wrote that Yue, a former assistant principal engineer for ST Kinetics, is accused of inciting violence on Facebook for posting the photo, as well as for putting up a link to a video of the assassination of an Egyptian president. He allegedly indicated that the video should be re-enacted at a National Day Parade.
ST said that a member of the public made a police report in September 2010 after the video link apparently appeared on the Temasek Review Facebook page, which included a comment that said, “We should re-enact a live version of this on our own grandstand during our national parade!!!!!!”
Today said Yue told the court on Wednesday that he had no intention to incite violence, and that he only made the posts as satire aimed at reducing his stress at work. It was also during that time when many were unhappy about terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari’s escape from a Singapore prison.
When contacted, Yue’s lawyer, N. Sreenivasan, declined to comment on the case.
District Judge Low Wee Ping will deliver his verdict on 16 February. If found guilty, Yue will face a maximum of five years in jail and also be fined for both charges.
