Fourth man fined for sharing images of fatal SAF Bionix training accident
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Mohamad Haikal Mohammad Zainal Abiddin was fined $3,000 after pleading guilty to two charges under the Official Secrets Act.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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SINGAPORE - A fourth man was fined on Monday (Jan 20) for unlawfully disseminating photographs of a 2018 fatal accident involving a Bionix armoured vehicle and a Land Rover which claimed the life of Corporal First Class Liu Kai.
Mohamad Haikal Mohammad Zainal Abiddin, who was doing his national service in the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) during the time of the accident, was fined $3,000 after pleading guilty to two charges under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
Another charge under the Act was taken into consideration.
Haikal, 21, was one of five men in the SCDF who shared photographs taken at the Jalan Murai training area in November 2018.
CFC Liu, 22, was driving a Land Rover during a military exercise when a Bionix armoured vehicle reversed into it and mounted the driver's side of the Land Rover.
Haikal, who has since completed his NS stint and is currently studying at the National University of Singapore, was among the SCDF personnel dispatched to the site.
Court documents stated that Haikal and his fellow SCDF personnel, Mohamad Arif Azman, 22, used their personal mobile phones to take photographs of the accident scene.
Of the five photographs that Haikal took, three captured the Bionix and the Land Rover crushed beneath it. Two others showed the licence plate of each vehicle respectively.
None showed CFC Liu.
After the SCDF personnel returned to Jurong Fire Station, Arif and Haikal sent the photographs they had taken to a WhatsApp chat group comprising 24 present and former SCDF personnel attached to Jurong Fire Station.
Haikal also sent the five photographs to his friend, a Singapore Armed Forces full-time national serviceman attached to Keat Hong Camp, via WhatsApp.
According to court documents, Haikal did so even as he was aware of the sensitive nature of the photographs and knew that he was not authorised to disseminate them.
The photographs sent by Arif and Haikal were further disseminated by three other members in the WhatsApp chat group - Muhammad Zaki Haji Mokhtar, 24, Brandon Tan Jien Jet and Thng Yu Xuan, both aged 21.
Arif, Zaki and Tan were sentenced last year after pleading guilty to charges under the OSA. Arif was fined $3,000, while Zaki and Tan were fined $1,500 each.
The case for Thng is still pending.
