A lone protestor who demonstrated against the Singapore judiciary got his day in court yesterday as he got charged taking part in public assemblies without permit, Channel NewsAsia reports. Not exactly rabble-rousing protests either — he carried out his dissent alone.
On Mar 2, 40-year-old Yan Jun had allegedly gone to Istana Park displaying placards stating “no judicial corruption in the Supreme Court of Singapore” and “protest against High Court of Singapore for miscarriage of justice”.
Prior to that, Yan was at High Street Centre along North Bridge Road (pretty close to the Supreme Court) on Apr 13, displaying placards alleging “judicial corruption” in the Supreme Court.
In court, the prosecution called for a psychiatric evaluation for Yan at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), citing evidence of “persecutory delusional disorder”.
This might have been associated with Yan’s previous brushes with the law. He had been arrested for breaching the Personal Protection Order his wife took against him before getting released without being charged in 2009. Four years later, he tried suing the Government for “wrongful arrest, false imprisonment, assault and battery, excessive use of force, malicious prosecution, abuse of process and defamation”. It got thrown out by the Court of Appeal in 2014.
The District Judge ordered Yan to be held at IMH for two weeks for an assessment. He’ll appear in court again on Apr 28.
