Advertisement

Alleged town council hacker handed 105 more charges

A screengrab from the video, purportedly uploaded by "Anonymous", features a masked person speaking in a scrambled voice, warning of an imminent attack on the government. (Screengrab from video)

(UPDATED 25 August 2014. Adds details of new charges)

James Raj Arokiasamy, the alleged “Messiah” hacker was handed 105 additional charges on Monday (25 Aug) in court.

According to Channel News Asia, Raj, 35, has been charged for unauthorised access into the Fuji Xerox webserver in March last year.

He faces a total of 162 charges.

He was previously charged with hacking the Ang Mo Kio town council website and ordered to be remanded at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for psychiatric evaluation for up to two weeks.

He is accused of defacing a portion of the Ang Mo Kio town council website by adding the image of the Guy Fawkes Mask, displaying a statement addressed to Member of Parliament Ang Hin Kee and signing off with the name “The Messiah”.

Last year, prosecutors requested for Raj to be remanded to IMH on the basis of the accused's statement to the investigative officer that he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Raj objected and claimed that when he was arrested by police in Kuala Lumpur on 4 November 2013 he had been assaulted and suffered a concussion.

District Judge Kessler Soh, however, ruled in favour of the prosecution's application to have Raj remanded.

While undergoing the psychiatric evaluation, Raj will not be given access to third parties outside of IMH.

Standing in court, Raj, a skinny, balding man of average height, also requested to speak to his lawyer, M Ravi and asserted that some of his statements about ADHD had been taken out of context.

 

Wanted by CNB

A police statement released said that the suspect was also wanted by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) for outstanding drug-related offences in Singapore. He was believed to be hiding in Kuala Lumpur.

"The Singapore Police and CNB worked very closely with the Royal Malaysia Police to track down the suspect in Malaysia and arrested him on 4 November 2013," the statement said. He has been charged on 5 November for drug-related offences.

The Straits Times reported that Raj, whom police believe had acted in isolation, was also charged for hacking The Straits Times blogs, the PCF website and Sun Ho's website.
 
Today reported that Raj had told the court that he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), is currently taking medication, claims to be suicidal, and suffers from seeing hallucinations.

 


- With reporting by Nurul Azliah Aripin