Man fined $8,500 for inciting violence online
An unemployed man was fined $8,500 on Monday for two online posts which contained an incitement to violence.
According to the Straits Times, Gary Yue Mun Yew, 36, was slapped with a fine of $6,000 for a post on Temasek Review on 9 August 2010, which contained a link to a video clip of the assassination of former president of Egypt Anwar Sadat in 1981. In the offending post, Yue had commented that the assassination should be re-orchestrated “on our own grandstand during our national’s parade!!!!!”.
The former engineer was fined another $2,500 for posting a doctored Pulitzer prize winning picture on his own Facebook wall in late July or August 2011. The altered photograph showed South Vietnam General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing former Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng. The head of Wong and the logo of the People’s Action Party were superimposed into the original photograph by Eddie Adams, reported ST.
Yue was convicted in January after a day-long trial, after District Judge Low Wee Ping ruled that the video and comment were indisputably an encouragement to the political assassination of persons who would be on the grand-stand during National Day, according to ST.
However, Low said that Yue was “attention seeking” when he posted the doctored photograph, reported ST.
According to ST, Yue could have been jailed for up to five years and/or fined on each charge. Deputy public prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani said that Yue should be given a jail sentence as a warning against future offenders.
However, Yue’s lawyers N. Sreenivisan and S. Balamurugan argued that Yue should undergo counselling instead of a custodial sentence, as he is single-handedly supporting his family, reported ST.
