Man gets three weeks' jail over racist tweets
He had initially set up parody Twitter account to satirise racially insensitive Singaporeans
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Zainal Abidin Shaiful Bahari, who had posed as "SharonLiew86" to send multiple racially offensive tweets, was yesterday sentenced to three weeks' jail.
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A senior director of a computer software firm and two friends came together in July 2018 to set up a parody Twitter account to satirise racially insensitive Singaporeans.
But in an ironic twist, he ended up being the very person he had sought to satirise after his tweets became overtly offensive and racially insensitive.
Zainal Abidin Shaiful Bahari, now 35, who had posed as "SharonLiew86" to send multiple racially offensive tweets, was yesterday sentenced to three weeks' jail.
The Singaporean pleaded guilty to two charges involving acts against racial harmony. Two other similar charges were considered during sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sen-thilkumaran Sabapathy said the account gained traction and had over 5,600 followers by August 2018.
Zainal later took sole control of the account after his two Singaporean friends stopped using it in early 2019. He started sending the racially offensive tweets soon after.
On Oct 11, 2019, he created a post purporting that the academic achievements of Malay students were inferior to those of their Chinese counterparts.
He also used a racial slur when referring to Indians in two posts on March 25 and April 17 last year. The DPP told Deputy Presiding Judge S. Jennifer Marie the latter tweet was specifically made in response to an online report on the rising number of Covid-19 cases among foreign workers in dormitories.
"The April 17 tweet was widely circulated on the Internet... The accused took down the... tweet about 30 minutes after it was posted after realising the tweet had gone viral and was getting substantial negative attention online from... the public," the DPP added.
The court heard that in a fourth post on April 18 last year, he made fun of the "pottu", a coloured dot commonly worn on the forehead by those who practise Hinduism.
A member of the public alerted the police that day and Bedok Police Division officers established Zainal's identity five days later.
He later admitted to police that he had published public posts with the Twitter account and was charged in court last July.
Yesterday, DPP Senthilkumaran urged the court to sentence Zainal to at least four weeks' jail, stressing that his behaviour was "entirely typical of an 'online troll', who derives perverse entertainment by intentionally inflaming the emotions of others".
Zainal was represented by lawyers Sunil Sudheesan and Diana Ngiam. In his mitigation plea, Mr Sudheesan said his client is not racist and is "sincerely contrite". The lawyer also said Zainal had "tried to be funny" but "overstepped the mark".
