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Neo Khoon Sing who was tried for 24 days, was convicted of sending hoax warnings about terrorist attacks to government websites in 2005. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
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A NATIONAL Environment Agency (NEA) senior manager was found guilty of three charges of sending false feedback messages about possible terrorist and bomb attacks to government websites in 2005.
Neo Khoon Sing, 38, who has been suspended from duty, is the first to be tried under the United Nations (Anti-Terrorism Measures) Regulations, which make it an criminal offence to spread false alarms about terrorist acts.
Most of the offenders accused of making alarmist messages have pleaded guilty and jailed since the law was introduced in 2001.
Neo, who was tried for 24 days, was convicted of sending hoax warnings about terrorist attacks to eCitizen Defence & Security eTown feedback website and Ministry of Home Affairs feedback unit on Oct 18, 2005 at the NEA North East Regional Office at Sin Min Drive.
He was also convicted of sending a long e-mail about a 'plot to conduct suicide bomb attack against PM, Ministers and MPs in a major event in Bedok Reservoir area in the coming weeks' to the PMO Feedback Unit the next day.
Neo, who was then the co-leader of a sub-committee for NEA's Clean and Green Week 2005, used fake Muslim names to send out the messages.
Besides Neo's statements, the prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutors Christopher Ong and Crystal Ong, had based its case largely on circumstantial evidence in the form of e-mails which it contended were sent by Neo.
The prosecution had also relied on computer forensic evidence to establish its case.
Neo, a father of one, denied sending out the e-mails, saying he had nothing to do with them and that they were probably sent by someone else.
District Judge Bala Reddy said he had carefully considered all the evidence and found that prosecution had established its case against Neo beyond any reasonable doubt.
'The evidence adduced by the prosecution leads to the irresistible conclusion that it was the accused who had sent the messages mentioned in the three charges,' he said.
There was not a 'shred' of credible evidence to support Neo's alibi, added Judge Reddy, noting that Neo's statements contradicted his own story, too.
Neither was there evidence that he was of unsound mind at the time of the offences, said the judge.
Neo's lawyer, Mr Raymond Lye, said his client, had been a civil servant for 10 years and was promoted twice - in the late 1990s and 2003 from manager to senior manager .
He had also published articles on disease control in professional journals, and won prizes and awards.
He said Neo had been seeing a psychiatrist for the past 10 years for paranoia and is in remission.
Neo will be sentenced next Friday.
He can be fined up to $100,000 or jailed for up to five years or both on each charge.
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