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SINGAPORE: A woman was fined S $ 3,000 on Friday (December 11) for gathering with 11 other people for a social gathering on Lazarus Island when such large groups were banned during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vietnamese national Luong Thi Thu Ha, 31, will have the validity of her reentry permit shortened upon her next renewal, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ACI) said in a statement after her sentencing.
In the same announcement, the authority stated that permanent residents of Singapore who have been convicted of a crime will have their permanent residence status revised.
Luong pleaded guilty to one charge of gathering with other people outside his home for an unlawful purpose. She is the eighth of the group of 12 to do so.
READ: 6 people fined for a large gathering on Lazaro Island amid the COVID-19 outbreak
Those who have been convicted received the same fine. They are: British citizens William Edwin Dunford, 32, Richard Henri Lagesse, 31, Lowri Mair Jeffs, 31, Zoe Louise Cronk, 30, Jeff Richard Alexander, 32, Paul Jonathan Gold, 32, and 29-year-old Natalie Joanna of Singapore. Sarkies.
At approximately 11 a.m. on August 8, the group took a ferry to San Juan Island and walked to the beach on Lazaro Island, where they spent a day of leisure activities.
They took a ferry back to mainland Singapore around 6 p.m., and Sarkies posted photos of the trip on the photo-sharing platform Instagram.
The images were later republished on other social media platforms, attracting attention and sparking public alarm, court documents said.
Luong’s attorney, Anand Nalachandran, made only brief oral comments in court on Friday, responding to a question from the judge about his written mitigation statement.
He said the evidence “is unclear as to how often and how long the group met in more than five people.”
For violating a COVID-19 regulation, Luong could have been jailed for up to six months, fined up to S $ 10,000, or both.
The cases of the remaining four defendants are pending: Joshua Adam Roth, Edward John Joseph Lee-Bull, Helen Ann Sullivan and James Riby Oram Trimming.
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