A radical Falun Gong supporter has been sentenced to two months' imprisonment and six strokes of the cane for carrying out political vandalism in various prominent public areas.
21-year-old Chinese national Gao Bin, an English student in a private school here told the police that he wanted to raise awareness among his fellow countrymen through his scrawls. The Falun Gong or Falun Dafa spiritual movement and its practitioners face state-sanctioned suppression in China, who consider it a potential threat due to the amount of influence it holds. Human rights groups have reported that Falun Gong practitioners are subjected to various human rights abuses including torture, forced labor and other intimidating 'rehabilitating' methods.
The New Paper reports that Gao's vandalism had caused $728.11 in damage, of which he could not afford to pay. Among his misdeeds include scribbling "Fa Lun Da Fa is good. Chinese communist party is going to fall, faster leave the party, to save yourselves" in Chinese on a pillar of an MRT viaduct along Geylang East Avenue 1. It cost SMRT $300 to repair the damage caused.
His sentence also considers similar offences committed on Singapore Power electrical grid boxes along Purvis Street, a Land Transport Authority control box, a concrete pillar that belonged to SingTel and another SMRT pillar.
For each count of vandalism, Gao could have been jailed for up to three years or fined up to $2,000, as well as three to eight strokes of the cane.
Photo: William Murphy via Flickr
A radical Falun Gong supporter has been sentenced to two months' imprisonment and six strokes of the cane for carrying out political vandalism in various prominent public areas.
21-year-old Chinese national Gao Bin, an English student in a private school here told the police that he wanted to raise awareness among his fellow countrymen through his scrawls. The Falun Gong or Falun Dafa spiritual movement and its practitioners face state-sanctioned suppression in China, who consider it a potential threat due to the amount of influence it holds. Human rights groups have reported that Falun Gong practitioners are subjected to various human rights abuses including torture, forced labor and other intimidating 'rehabilitating' methods.
The New Paper reports that Gao's vandalism had caused $728.11 in damage, of which he could not afford to pay. Among his misdeeds include scribbling "Fa Lun Da Fa is good. Chinese communist party is going to fall, faster leave the party, to save yourselves" in Chinese on a pillar of an MRT viaduct along Geylang East Avenue 1. It cost SMRT $300 to repair the damage caused.
His sentence also considers similar offences committed on Singapore Power electrical grid boxes along Purvis Street, a Land Transport Authority control box, a concrete pillar that belonged to SingTel and another SMRT pillar.
For each count of vandalism, Gao could have been jailed for up to three years or fined up to $2,000, as well as three to eight strokes of the cane.
Photo: William Murphy via Flickr