SINGAPORE: The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) has been ordered to put up a correction notice on its social media posts, after it published false statements about the case of three women charged with organising a procession along the perimeter of the Istana without a permit.
The three women – Annamalai Kokila Parvathi, Siti Amirah Mohamed Asrori and Mossammad Sobikun Nahar – allegedly organised the march on Feb 2 in support of the Palestinian cause.
They were charged on Jun 27 with public order offences.
In a media release on Saturday (Jun 29), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) noted that the three women were charged with an offence under Section 15(1) of the Public Order Act 2009 for organising a procession in a prohibited area.
The Istana, the official office of the president, is a prohibited area.
“The SDP’s posts falsely suggested that the three women were instead charged for organising support for the Palestinian people,” MHA added.
“Any person who organises a public assembly or a procession in a designated prohibited area would have committed an offence, regardless of the cause or issue he or she is advocating for. Prohibited areas are security sensitive areas, and also include the Parliament House and the Supreme Court.”
The ministry also shot down comments by the SDP which suggested that the government, in particular Law and Home Affairs Minister, prosecuted the three women because they had expressed views that the government did not agree with.
“The decision to charge the three women was not in response to the views they had expressed, nor depended on whether these views concorded or did not concord with the government’s views. The charges concern the organising of the unauthorised procession, in and of itself,” said MHA.
It added that the decision to charge the women was not made by Mr Shanmugam but by the Attorney-General’s Chambers, after its review of the police’s investigation.
“The minister does not make decisions relating to criminal prosecutions,” it stressed.
“The government takes a serious view of the deliberate communication of falsehoods.”