SINGAPORE: Two social media platforms have been served with targeted correction directions under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) on Friday (11 October), after activist Kokila Annamalai failed to comply with a correction order issued to her last week.

Ms Annamalai received the order on 5 October for misleading posts made on Facebook and X.

In a statement, The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the posts falsely claimed that “the government schedules and stays executions arbitrarily and without regard for due legal process, and that the State does not bear the legal burden of proving a drug trafficking charge against the accused person.”

MHA noted that an article on the government fact-checking website Factually elaborated on why Ms Annamalai’s assertions were false.

The order mandated that she post a correction notice on the two posts; however, she has not complied.

In light of this non-compliance, the Minister for Home Affairs has directed the POFMA Office to issue a targeted correction direction to Meta Platforms and X.

This order requires the platforms to notify users who have seen the posts that they contain false statements and to provide a link to the Factually article explaining the inaccuracies.

MHA also announced that it would refer Ms Annamalai to the POFMA Office for investigations regarding her failure to comply with the correction direction issued on 5 October.

Earlier, the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN), an organisation advocating for the abolition of the death penalty in the Asia-Pacific region, was also served with a correction order by the Singapore government under POFMA.

This order, initiated by Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam, was in response to alleged false claims made by ADPAN in social media posts on 3 October 2024.

The posts, which were circulated on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, related to Singapore’s legal processes for death row prisoners and the treatment of activists opposing the death penalty.

They were released just before the scheduled execution of Mohammad Azwan Bohari, a drug trafficking convict sentenced to death for possessing over 26.5 grammes of pure heroin.

While ADPAN has since complied with the correction order by adding a notice to the original posts across its social media accounts, the group has expressed its intention to engage further with the order.

ADPAN reiterated its commitment to its statements and opinions, which it asserts are protected by international human rights law and standards, and expressed solidarity with human rights defenders and groups on the ground.

The organisation also reserved the right to issue additional statements on the matter.

Two men accused in a corruption case involving a former deputy group director of the Land Transport Authority (LTA), Henry Foo Yung Thye, were acquitted on 11 October 2024.

The trial judge ruled that the statements taken by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) had been unreliable and inaccurate, resulting in the acquittal of Mr Pay Teow Heng, 56, and Mr Pek Lian Guan, 59. Both had been charged in July 2020 for allegedly bribing Foo to secure business advantages for their company, Tiong Seng Contractors.

District Judge Soh Tze Bian issued a detailed 52-page judgment highlighting the procedural flaws in the case.

He emphasized that the conduct of the CPIB officers responsible for recording statements from Mr Pay and Mr Pek raised significant doubts about the reliability of the evidence against the accused. The judge found that the statements obtained from the two men were “inaccurate, unreliable and unsafe” to rely on, leading to their acquittal on all charges.

The accusations against Mr Pay and Mr Pek centred on two counts, each under the Prevention of Corruption Act

Mr Pay, then the director of Tiong Seng Contractors, was accused of offering S$350,000 in bribes to Henry Foo on two occasions in 2017 and 2018 to advance the company’s interests with the LTA. Mr Pek, the managing director of Tiong Seng Contractors, was accused of aiding Mr Pay in the alleged offences.

On 2 September 2021, Henry Foo was sentenced to 66 months’ imprisonment for corruption. Additionally, a penalty order of S$1,156,250 (in default, 12 months’ imprisonment) was imposed on him.

Issues with the CPIB Investigation

A key factor in the acquittal was the conduct of two CPIB investigating officers (IOs), Chris Lim and another officer identified only as Jeffrey. According to Judge Soh, their methods of recording statements from the accused demonstrated a lack of objectivity and integrity.

Mr Lim, who recorded Mr Pay’s second statement, admitted during the trial that he had approached the interview with a “preconceived notion” of Mr Pay’s guilt.

Judge Soh criticized Mr Lim’s handling of the statement, noting that he retyped the statement with his own wording after Mr Pay suggested amendments. This action left Mr Pay unable to verify whether his changes were accurately reflected, raising questions about the reliability of the statement.

Similarly, IO Jeffrey’s conduct in recording Mr Pek’s first statement was found to be flawed. The judge noted that Jeffrey had used a “cut-and-paste method” to compile the statement, which included repeated self-incriminating remarks.

The judge remarked that the statement seemed more like a “product of IO Jeffrey’s authorship than an accurate account of what Pek actually communicated.” During cross-examination, Jeffrey admitted that he had crafted the statement to suggest that Mr Pek was the originator of the corrupt scheme.

The judge noted: “By IO Jeffrey’s own admission, he drafted Pek’s first statement with the intention to ‘frame’ Pek, focusing almost exclusively on recording information that supported Pek’s culpability, rather than objectively establishing the facts of the case.”

He stated that these actions by the IOs made it unsafe to rely on the statements as evidence of guilt.

Testimony of Key Witness Henry Foo

Another critical aspect of the judgment involved the testimony of Henry Foo, the former LTA official who received the alleged bribes.

Foo, who was called as a prosecution witness, testified that neither Mr Pay nor Mr Pek had requested any favours in return for the loans they extended to him. He maintained that the loans were offered out of goodwill and friendship, rather than as part of a corrupt arrangement.

Judge Soh noted that the prosecution had failed to challenge or impeach Foo’s credibility, making his testimony more reliable in the eyes of the court.

Furthermore, Foo had testified that he pleaded guilty to the charges against him in 2021 not because he believed in his own guilt, but to avoid the prolonged distress of a trial. Judge Soh rejected the prosecution’s argument that Foo’s guilty plea should be seen as an admission of his own corrupt intent and that of Mr Pay and Mr Pek.

Foo was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison in September 2021 after being found guilty of accepting S$1.24 million in bribes.

His guilty plea, however, did not directly implicate Mr Pay and Mr Pek in corrupt activities, according to the judge’s assessment.

Outcome and Next Steps

Judge Soh concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove its case against Mr Pay and Mr Pek beyond a reasonable doubt.

As a result, he ordered a discharge amounting to an acquittal for both men, clearing them of all charges.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) is currently reviewing the judgment to determine the next course of action, as confirmed by an AGC spokesperson.

Both Mr Pay and Mr Pek had stepped down from their roles at Tiong Seng Holdings after the charges were brought against them in 2020.

Several other individuals, including former directors of other engineering firms, have been sentenced to jail in connection with the corruption scheme involving Henry Foo.