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Healing the Divide's Iris Koh gets more serious charge of criminal conspiracy to lie to MOH, is in hospital

Healing the Divide's Iris Koh gets more serious charge of criminal conspiracy to lie to MOH, is in hospital

A screengrab of Iris Koh's YouTube channel on Nov 7, 2021.

SINGAPORE: The founder of Healing the Divide, a group with a known stance against vaccination, had her charge upgraded on Friday (Jan 28) to a more serious one of conspiring to lie to the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Iris Koh Shu Cii, 46, was first charged on Sunday with one count of conspiring with doctor Jipson Quah to cheat MOH into believing that people were vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine.

The maximum penalty for this charge is three years' jail, a fine, or both.

On Friday, Koh received a more serious charge of criminal conspiracy to give a false representation to MOH.

She is now accused of being party to a criminal conspiracy with Quah between July 2021 and January 2022.

According to the charge sheet, she and Quah agreed to dishonestly make false representations to MOH that people were vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine, when they were not, in order to obtain COVID-19 vaccination certificates for these people.

The new charge is punishable by up to 20 years' jail, a fine, or both.

Koh is currently warded at Singapore General Hospital, according to court records, and will be remanded again once she is discharged.

Her lawyer, Clarence Lun of Fervent Chambers, told CNA that his team was preparing an application to the High Court to reverse the no-bail condition that Koh is currently under.

It is Koh's husband's "sincere hope" to be able to spend Chinese New Year with her, said Mr Lun.

Koh was warded both at the Institute of Mental Health and now SGH. Her lawyer said it is presently unclear what the reasons for her hospitalisation are.

However, he said it was "unlikely to be COVID-19", to his knowledge.

Koh is set to return to court on Feb 4. The two others linked to her case, Quah and his assistant Thomas Chua Cheng Soon, are similarly remanded and facing upgraded charges.

Source: CNA/ll(gs)

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