Even more drama unfolded today in the ongoing Benjamin Lim case. Police revealed today that they’ve arrested a man responsible for posting comments on Facebook that incited violence against the cops who handled the investigation.
According to the police, a 40-year-old local Chinese man was identified and arrested for the offence of Communicating an Electronic Record Containing Incitements to Violence. The authorities had been alerted on Feb 8 regarding a post made by the suspect in response to a news article about the apparent suicide of Lim.
“Please reveal the identity of the 5 plain clothes officers and we go handle them ourselves,” the man allegedly wrote. “Kill them.”
The five police officers he refers to is of course the officers who came to North View Secondary School to pick Lim up for investigations into allegations of him molesting a girl. The cops brought the 14-year-old to Ang Mo Kio Police Headquarters for questioning, and eventually released him to return home with his mother. A few hours later, he was found dead at the foot of his HDB block in Yishun in an apparent suicide from the 14th floor.
Much has been said by netizens about the way the police might have mishandled the case, which could seem like their scare tactics might have distressed the boy enough to take his own life. Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam however made a case against all wrongdoing on the side of the authorities in Parliament yesterday, especially taking aim at The Online Citizen. He went so far as to accuse the sociopolitical site of going on “a planned, orchestrated campaign, using falsehoods, and has published about 20 articles or so as part of its campaign.”
As for the recently arrested suspect, investigations are currently ongoing. Should he be found guilty, he could be jailed for up to five years and/or fined. All for some careless Facebook comment.
