Once bitten twice shy? Not for this guy, who was arrested two days in a row for holding public demonstrations by himself, holding up a placard and making speeches with a bullhorn at Raffles Place.
Yan Jun, 41, has since been charged in court on Wednesday under the Public Order Act for staging two demonstrations without permit at Raffles Place over some ‘Terrex conspiracy’ on Monday and Tuesday, Channel NewsAsia reports. Calling for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to resign over a conspiracy involving the Singapore Armed Forces’ Terrex armoured vehicles, he made claims that Singapore’s Supreme Court was “corrupt”.
In court, Deputy Public Prosecutor Randeep Singh showed footage from an officer’s body-worn camera of Yan, who was described as “belligerent” — apparently he was shouting at cops using his bullhorn, despite them being right in front of him.
These weren’t Yan’s first brushes with the law involving protests though. He was fined last June for staging demonstrations against the judiciary outside the Istana as well as High Street Centre, near the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Additionally, DPP Singh intends to have two more charges brought against him for two protests he allegedly staged outside the US embassy and British High Commission on October and December last year.
Yan was diagnosed in February this year with “delusional disorder of a persecutory type”, the court heard. Yan harbours “irrational beliefs he’s being persecuted by law enforcement officers and the judiciary”, DPP Singh said. He adds that Yan has poor insight into his condition and even refused treatment.
Yan argued that the reasons for his detention in the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) as “totally baseless”, and claimed he had been abused there on the previous occasion. He also argued that he did not give consent for a psychiatric evaluation, which he regarded as “unlawful”. He was reportedly unhappy when District Judge Adam Nakhoda accepted the prosecutor’s recommendation to remand Yan at IMH, and continued to argue in a raised voice until he was taken out of the courtroom by officers.
He will be remanded at the IMH for a psychiatric evaluation.
If Yan is convicted of the charges under the Public Order Act, he could be fined up to $5,000 per charge.
