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SINGAPORE: Activist Jolovan Wham Kwok Han was charged on Monday (November 23) with organizing illegal protests in front of the former State Courts building and near a police center in Toa Payoh.
Wham, 40, is charged with holding a protest on December 13, 2018 on the stairs of the building that housed the state courts at the time.
He is shown in a photo he uploaded to Facebook holding a sign that read: “Drop charges against Terry Xu and Daniel De Costa.”
In doing so, he allegedly participated in an assembly prohibited by the Public Order Law.
Later, Xu and De Costa were indicted in a criminal defamation case involving government officials.
Wham’s second charge was for an incident on March 28 of this year, when he allegedly participated in a public assembly without a permit near the Toa Payoh Central Community Club and the Toa Payoh Neighborhood Police Center.
He did so by holding a piece of cardboard with a smiley face drawn on it, said charge sheets and took a photo of himself.
This was supposedly a demonstration of his support for the actions of Nguyen Nhat Minh, who was depicted in another photo holding a cardboard with the words: “SG IS BETTER THAN OIL @ Fridays4futuresg”.
Wham posted a selfie on Facebook before his upload on Monday, showing himself in a shirt and mask with smiling faces. The caption read: “My guilt is obvious to all. On the way to state courts! #Smileinsolidarity.”
This is the latest of Wham’s run-ins with the law. His appeal against his conviction and sentence of a 3,200 Singapore dollar fine for an event involving Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was dismissed in October last year. When he was sentenced, he said he would not pay the fine and preferred to go to jail.
READ: Jolovan Wham fined for organizing a public assembly without permission, chooses to go to jail instead
In addition to the new charges, he faces other pending charges for allegedly organizing other meetings on the MRT trains and outside the prison.
Wham will return to court on November 27. If you are found guilty of participating in an illegal public assembly, you could be fined up to S $ 5,000 per charge.
