A Singapore court sentenced a Filipino nurse to four months in prison for posting seditious comments on Facebook against Singaporeans and lying to police investigators.
The 29-year-old Ello Ed Munsel posted comments calling Singaporeans “pigs” and calling for the Filipino takeover of Singapore.
State Court Judge Siva Shanmugan sentenced Munsel to three months in prison for sedition in relation to his Facebook posts, and another month for lying to police who investigated his case.
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Prosecutors had asked for a prison term of five months, and Bello did not appeal the sentence. He hoped to be back in the Philippines by Christmas and hoped his sentence would be reduced for good behavior in prison.
Munsel posted on Facebook that Singaporeans are “losers” and that Filipinos will evict all Singaporeans and make it the new Filipino state.
After protests from Singaporeans, Munsel took down his posts and claimed to police investigators that his account has been hacked. However, he eventually admitted posting the comments.
The judge said Munsel’s posts had the potential to harm Singapore-Philippines relations if left unchecked. It could cause discrimination against innocent and law-abiding minority Filipino residents in Singapore.
Munsel could have been sentenced to three years in prison for sedition and a year for lying to the police, but the judge said he was a first-time offender who showed remorse and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
Source: ABS-CBN
