SINGAPORE, June 14 — A 46-year-old man, who has been convicted at least 10 times for staging illegal protests including some outside Raffles Place MRT Station, was charged today with holding another protest in front of the United States (US) Embassy here.
Yan Jun now faces one charge each of taking part in a public assembly without a permit on Sunday (June 12) and behaving in a disorderly manner in public.
The Singaporean is accused of holding up eight different placards “demonstrating opposition” to various actions while standing in front of the embassy at Napier Road, around 2.17pm that day.
Court documents stated that one of the placards said “Protest against CIA agent David Roach for spying on me in Changi Prison!”.
The CIA refers to the US’ Central Intelligence Agency and Yan was referring to David James Roach, who was sentenced to five years’ jail and caning last year for robbing a Standard Chartered (StanChart) branch in Holland Village in 2016.
Roach, a Canadian national, fled Singapore but was ultimately extradited here from Britain after a long-drawn process. His caning sentence was set aside to fulfil the assurance given by the authorities here to British authorities.
Yan also demanded the People’s Action Party, US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “justify the Roach espionage scadal [sic]”.
Among the other placards that he displayed were some that he had shown outside the US embassy in November 2020.
He alleged that the Singapore legal system was “totally corrupt”, that Changi Prison was a “slave camp”, and that the government in China had ignored the Singapore government’s “spy activities in China”.
Court documents stated that Yan was last fined S$5,000 (RM15,895.90) in February this year for taking part in a public assembly without a permit.
In 2018, when he was jailed and fined for unlawfully protesting outside Raffles Place MRT Station, he turned his back on the judge and prosecutor during his trial. He also shouted at the judge and interrupted the proceedings several times.
In more recent court hearings, psychiatric reports from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) showed that he suffered from delusional disorder but that there was no contributory link between the mental illness and his past offences.
On Tuesday, he was remanded at IMH once more for a psychiatric evaluation. He will return to court on June 28.
If convicted of behaving in a disorderly manner, he could be jailed up to six months and fined up to S$2,000.
Under the Public Order Act, repeat offenders who take part in a public assembly without a permit can be jailed up to S$5,000. First-time offenders can be jailed up to S$3,000. — TODAY
