Singapore | Fourth POFMA order for anti-death penalty activist group Transformative Justice Collective

A targeted correction direction has also been issued to TikTok, which will be required to carry a correction notice to all end-users in Singapore who accessed the post.

SINGAPORE: The Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) – an activist group that campaigns against the death penalty - was issued a fourth Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) order on Tuesday (Nov 26).

The correction direction relates to posts made by TJC on its Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X pages on Nov 20. Activists Kokila Annamalai and Rocky Howe were added as collaborators on the Instagram post.

A targeted correction direction has also been issued to TikTok over the TJC post on the platform, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday.

MHA said the social media posts contain a false statement regarding the recent execution of three prisoners awaiting capital punishment.

The posts also falsely claimed that the three prisoners were executed without regard for their intellectual and psychosocial disabilities.

"In their post-appeal applications to the court for re-sentencing, the PACPs (prisoners awaiting capital punishment) argued that they suffered from abnormality of mind, which substantially impaired their mental responsibility for their acts and omissions in relation to the offences," according to an article on the government's fact-checking website, Factually.

"The court considered the evidence they produced, and rejected their assertions."

TJC will be required to carry a correction notice against the original posts, with a link to the government's clarification.

TikTok will also be required to carry a correction notice to all end-users in Singapore who accessed the post on the platform.

As of 6.20pm on Tuesday, checks by CNA showed that TJC had not put up correction notices on their posts.

'Prisoners afforded due legal process'

In response to the false statements made by TJC, the Factually article said that the prisoners - Rosman Abdullah, Roslan Bakar and Pausi Jefridin - were afforded due legal processes.

Their capital sentences were upheld after the court "fully considered and rejected their claims and evidence in relation to their purported mental disabilities".

"Their executions were scheduled only upon the exhaustion of all rights of appeal, as well as the clemency process."

The article noted that TJC had highlighted how Rosman had been on the death row for 14 years. Pausi and Roslan were also on death row for a similar period of time.

However, it clarified that this duration was significantly longer due to legal applications taken out by Rosman, Pausi and Roslan.

It added that Rosman was an applicant and/or joint applicant in nine other legal proceedings after his appeal against his conviction and sentence was dismissed in April 2011.

Pausi and Roslan were applicants in eight and 14 other legal proceedings respectively, following the dismissal of their conviction and sentence appeals in March 2011.

Free speech quashed

TJC had previously been handed two POFMA correction orders, on Aug 8 and Aug 11, for having made 'similar false statements regarding death row prisoners.'

On Oct 5, it was handed another correction direction over 'false statements of facts concerning the legal processes for death row prisoners and the prosecution of drug trafficking charges related to a death row prisoner.'

Meta was also served a POFMA order in early November over users who reposted the' false statements made by TJC.'

📖 Recommended reading: Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock, by Alan Shadrake, 2011. ISBN-10: 1742663737 - ISBN-13: 978-1742663739. When this book was first published in Asia in July 2010, UK journalist Alan Shadrake was arrested and tried, then sentenced to jail for daring to put the Singapore justice system in the dock. The book is available on Amazon.

Source: channelnewsasia.com, Staff, November 26, 2024

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