48-year-old charged with hurting 3 madrasah students
Reuters file photo
SINGAPORE — A 48-year-old Singaporean man was charged in court on Monday (April 4) with hurting three madrasah students in quick succession last Friday, including a “racially aggravated” assault on one of the teenage girls.
Koh Weng Onn, a security officer, is said to have kicked a 16-year-old on her right thigh at around 7.22am along Paya Lebar Road, when she was on her way to her school nearby, at Madrasah Al Maarif Al Islamiah.
A minute later, Koh allegedly swung a plastic bag containing a filled 1.5-litre water bottle at the face of a 14-year-old student from the same madrasah. He is accused of repeating the act against a third student, 14, near an exit of the Paya Lebar MRT Station on the Circle Line.
He faces enhanced penalties of up to three years’ jail and/or a S$7,500 fine for the “racially aggravated” act of voluntarily causing hurt by kicking the first student, if convicted. The first time this rarely invoked charge was used was in 2009 when a man diagnosed with schizophrenia punched a Jewish man on the arm for no apparent reason.
For acting rashly to endanger the lives of the two girls he allegedly attacked subsequently, Koh faces up to a year in jail and/or a S$5,000 fine.
Prosecutors told the court Koh has made a “disproportionately high” number of 90 police reports over five years — the bulk of which appear to be generated by his belief that he had been targeted by others.
These include reports against a salesperson immediately after buying a product from her; against another lady whom he perceived was sitting inappropriately; on quarrels with his colleagues on their work deployment; and against strangers whom he believed bore him ill-will, the court was told.
Koh has been remanded at the Institute of Mental Health for psychiatric evaluation and will next appear in court on April 18.
On Monday, Koh’s older brother, Mr Muhammad Johan Koh, posted a comment on Facebook urging the public to let the authorities investigate and prosecute his brother.
The 49-year-old Muslim convert, who had contacted TODAY on Sunday to apologise to the Malay-Muslim community for the incident, said again that his brother “is not racist” and reiterated that his brother has a mental illness. He added that he hopes his brother will be sent to the Institute of Mental Health for treatment.
“My sincere apologies once again to the three Muslim students and their families, and also the Muslim community. Let us all live (in) harmony in Singapore,” the elder Mr Koh wrote.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, Law and Home affairs Minister K Shanmugam urged the public not to speculate on the motives behind the attack before investigations are complete.
“In this case, we do not know the detailed facts, the motives, and should wait for the investigations to be completed,” he wrote.
