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Activist Jolovan Wham, SDP's John Tan guilty of contempt of court

On 27 April, Wham shared on his Facebook page a link to an article by Malaysian online news portal Malaysiakini titled,
Singapore’ Supreme Court (Yahoo News Singapore file photo)

Civil society activist Jolovan Wham and Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) politician John Tan were on Tuesday (9 October) found guilty of contempt of court for scandalising the judiciary via Facebook posts.

Both men will be sentenced at a later date.

On 27 April, Wham shared on his Facebook page a link to an article by Malaysian online news portal Malaysiakini titled, “Malaysiakini mounts constitutional challenge against Anti-Fake News Act”.

Accompanying the link to the article, Wham – who has about 8,000 followers on his Facebook page – wrote the following caption: “Malaysia’s judges are more independent than Singapore’s for cases with political implications. Will be interesting to see what happens to this challenge.”

The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) subsequently initiated the contempt of court action against him.

On 6 May, Tan stated on Facebook that the AGC’s actions confirmed the truth of Wham’s comment, which then saw the AGC also initiating a contempt of court action against the opposition politician.

The contempt cases against Wham and Tan are the first under the new contempt laws under the Administration of Justice (Protection) Act 2016 that took effect from October last year.

High Court Judge Woo Bih Li will hear submissions on sentence for the duo at a hearing to be fixed on a later date.

The maximum penalty each man faces is up to three years’ jail, a fine of up to $100,000, or both.

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