Man who put up offensive posts warned

Abdul Malik Mohammed Ghazali put up an offensive post while Wendy Cheng made online comments on July 5 and July 6. PHOTOS: ABDUL MALIK MOHAMMED GHAZALI/FACEBOOK, ST FILE

A man who put up offensive Facebook posts has been given a stern warning from the police for harassment and posting comments on social media that promote enmity among different groups on grounds of religion or race.

The social media posts in question were made on Feb 8 and July 5 by a man using the moniker Abdul Malik Mohammed Ghazali, the police said in a statement yesterday.

On Feb 8, Mr Abdul Malik put up two separate social media posts that promoted enmity between different groups on grounds of religion or race, the statement added.

A social media post on July 5, police said, committed the offence of making a threatening communication likely to cause alarm under the Protection from Harassment Act.

In that post, Mr Abdul Malik had referred to social media posts made by Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan from the Workers' Party. He said he was "one of the first to leak out and (make) viral screenshots" of Ms Raeesah's social media accounts.

In the same post, he said: "Who cares about your father? SMCCI very big meh? Best for you to step down, Raeesah, or he'll be next."

Ms Raeesah's father, Mr Farid Khan, is president of the SMCCI, or Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He launched a bid to contest the Singapore presidential election in 2017 but was deemed ineligible.

The police, in a separate statement yesterday, said no further action will be taken regarding online posts made by netizen Xiaxue, whose real name is Wendy Cheng.

The police declined to provide further details on what these posts were about, but the investigation is believed to be linked to comments that Ms Cheng made about Ms Raeesah on July 5 and July 6.

There were also police reports filed against Ms Cheng earlier this year for racially offensive tweets that appear to have been targeted at foreign workers in Singapore.

Yesterday, the police said they had consulted the Attorney-General's Chambers, which advised that in Ms Cheng's case, "the elements of an offence have not been established beyond a reasonable doubt".

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 18, 2020, with the headline Man who put up offensive posts warned. Subscribe