Jolovan Wham, a well-known labour and human-rights activist, has found guilty for illegally organising a public assembly without a police permit and not signing a police statement.
The verdict was read in court today at 2.30pm. The judge said that the case was proven to be beyond doubt by the prosecution. And that it is not disrupted that the event was published on Facebook to the general public and the foreign speaker speaking at the said event.
The sentence will be read out on 23 Jan at 2.30pm.
In defence of the charge of not signing the police statement, Wham had earlier said that he choose not to sign the statement because he was not given a copy of the statement that he had given to the police.
The Singapore Police Force in an earlier statement, said that Wham had organised an indoor public assembly featuring a foreign speaker, which required a Police permit. It claims that it had engaged Wham prior to the event and advised him that a police permit was required. As Wham proceeded to hold the event without a police permit, the Police notes that Wham committed an offence of organising a public assembly without a police permit under the Public Order Act
The foreign speaker was Joshua Wong, more publicity known as the face of the Umbrella Movement pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong held in 2014. He, along with two other speakers, activists Kirsten Han and Seelan Palay, held a discussion on civil disobedience and democracy. As a result of the police’s investigation, various equipment from the organisers were confiscated.
Wham faces two other charges of organising public assembly without police permit and another two charges for not signing the police statements.
Anyone convicted of the offence of organising a public assembly without a police permit under Section 16(1)(a) of the Public Order Act, Chapter 257A, is liable to be fined up to $5.000 Repeat offenders are liable to be fined up to $10,000 or imprisoned for up to 6 months or both.
