Man who allegedly attacked madrasah students charged in court
Singaporean Koh Weng Onn, 48, was charged in court on Monday (4 April) after he allegedly attacked three madrasah students last Friday.
Koh was charged on two counts for committing a rash act and another count for voluntarily causing hurt that was racially aggravated.
If found guilty for the former charge, he could be imprisoned for up to two years and/or fined up to $5,000 for each count. If convicted for the latter charge, he could be imprisoned for up to three and a half years and/or fined up to $7,500.
District judge Ronald Gwee called for Koh to be remanded for two weeks at the Institute of Mental Health for psychiatric evaluation and a gag order on the identities of the students.
Following investigations over the weekend, court documents said the first student was kicked on her right thigh along Paya Lebar Road towards Guillemard Road Junction at 7:22am.
The second student was hit on the left side of her face after a plastic bag containing a filled 1.5-litre bottle was swung towards her at 7:23am. She was walking on the pedestrian pavement along the same road.
The third student was also hit on the left side of the face after the same bag was swung towards her from the opposite direction at 7:24am. She was ascending the escalator at exit D of the Paya Lebar Circle Line MRT station.
Koh was also found to have made 90 police reports in the past. According to Deputy Public Prosecutor Goh Yi Ling, those reports were “generated by his beliefs that he was being targeted by others”. He had also “made reports which nobody would have thought of making police reports about”, DPP Goh added.
Examples of these reports include a report on a lady whom he thought was sitting inappropriately, on quarrels with his colleagues about work deployment, and on strangers whom he believed “bore him ill-will”.
The case will be mentioned in court again on 18 April.
Brother apologises for suspect’s actions
Koh’s older brother, Muhammad Johan Koh, apologised to the Malay-Muslim community via TODAY on behalf of his brother for his actions. The elder Koh, who is a Muslim convert, also told the publication that his brother has a mental illness but has refused treatment. He added that his brother is not a racist.
In a Facebook post on Sunday morning (3 April), Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam appealed to the public to avoid speculation.
“People have asked me if this was an Islamophobic attack. I had specifically warned about Islamophobia, on Wednesday (March 30) - two days before this incident. It can be a cancer that destroys the soul of our country. We cannot tolerate that and MHA will act,” he wrote.
“In this case, we do not know the detailed facts, the motives, and should wait for the investigations to be completed. We should avoid speculation on the motives,” he said.
