S'pore war memorial vandal suspect arrested by police
A 32-year-old Singaporean man believed to have been behind the vandalism of the Cenotaph war memorial at the Esplanade Park earlier this week has been arrested, according to police.
The suspect was nabbed by Central Police Division officers in a Handy Road building on Saturday morning, reported The Straits Times. He will be charged in court for vandalism and may be fined up to $2,000 or jailed up to 3 years, as well as received between 3 to 8 strokes of cane.
The war monument was discovered to be sprayed with graffiti on Wednesday morning by a member of public. The vandal had defaced the war memorial by spraying the word "Democracy" and an "X" across the base of the monument. It has since been cleaned up.
Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong called the defacement of the monument "unacceptable".
The Cenotaph was erected in 1920 in memory of fallen soldiers during World War I. A dedication to those who died in World War II was added later and in 2010 it was gazetted as a national monument.
This is the second time the monument has been defaced in 4 months. In December last year the dates ''1939-1945'', which marks the part on World War II, were crossed out in black on the Cenotaph.
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