Man arrested for online threat against RP's Jeyaretnam: report
[UPDATE 24 Jan, 210am: A 23-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for making online threats against Jeyaretnam, according The Straits Times.]
Reform Party chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam said he filed a police report on Friday afternoon about online threats against him and his family.
In a verbal statement he delivered to reporters at a press conference outside Rivervale Mall on Friday evening, he described them to be "tantamount to death threats", adding that there were more than one instance of these warnings made to him, his wife and his teenaged son.
"I used that phrase (tantamount to death threats) because the wording of the threats is too awful for me to say aloud, and I am sorry that I cannot be more precise," said the 53-year-old, one of four Punggol East by-election candidates. He added that he later received another "credible threat of violence".
He said the threats were posted publicly on his Facebook page in recent days since Nomination Day on Wednesday, as well as directed at him on Twitter, but have since been taken down.
"It's caused considerable distress to my son," he added.
During the 11-minute standing interview, Jeyaretnam also clarified that these threats issued to him and his family are separate from an incident of cyber-bullying that he said was linked to his son's Twitter account. To this, he said police in London are investigating the incident, and requested that the public refrain from "escalating" the incident further.
After spending several hours at the Sengkang Neighbourhood Police Centre earlier on Friday, Jeyaretnam said he did not want to speculate who the people behind the threats to him and his family were, but noted that "there obviously are certain people who... intended to disrupt our campaign".
He said he and his party continues to be "very focused" on his campaign, however.
"We are very focused... and we are confident that our expertise on economic issues at the national level, plus our knowledge of the grassroots and local issues makes us the best-placed among the four candidates," he said.
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