Former nurse Ed Mundsel Bello Ello, better known by his Facebook handle Edz Ello, was charged on Tuesday, 7 April, with sedition and giving false information to the police following comments after allegedly making anti-Singaporean comments on Facebook.
The 28 year-old Filipino national was sacked by his former employer Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), who had said that “his conduct goes against our staff values of respect, professionalism and social responsibility. As a public healthcare institution, we take a very serious view and have zero tolerance on conduct that is offensive and detrimental to multi-cultural harmony in Singapore.”
Mr Ello currently faces two charges of publishing a seditious comment on his Facebook account and three of lying to the police.
He had written that Singaporeans are “losers” and vowed to “evict” them from their country and prayed that “disasters strike Singapore”, whereupon he would celebrate.
He also suggested that Singaporeans were unable to do the jobs better than Filipinos could, and also laid claims to Singaporean women. He also called Singapore “China’s toilet”.
The Sedition Act includes as seditious tendencies statements that “raise discontent or disaffection amongst the citizens of Singapore or the residents in Singapore” or “promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore.”
Mr Ello was also accused of lying to the police by claiming that he did not post the comments on Facebook. He had allegedly told a senior officer at Ang Mo Kio Police Division headquarters on 4 January that his Facebook account had been hacked.
Mr Ello, who was not represented, told the court he would be engaging a lawyer.
Bail of $10,000 was offered and his passport has been impounded. Mr Ello’s pre-trial conference will be on 21 April.
If convicted, he could be fined up to S$5,000 and/or jailed for up to three years on each charge of sedition, and fined up to S$5,000 and/or jailed for up to one year for lying to the police.
