NSF Liu Kai’s death: Another SCDF personnel fined for taking, sharing photographs of fatal SAF training accident
Mohamad Haikal Mohd Zainal Abiddin leaving the State Courts on Oct 25, 2019. He pleaded guilty on Jan 20, 2020 to two charges under the Official Secrets Act of disseminating photographs of an accident that occurred during a military training exercise.
SINGAPORE — Before he started work extricating a full-time national serviceman (NSF) who was crushed in an army vehicle, a section commander with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) took five photographs of the accident with his mobile phone.
Once the operation was over, Mohamad Haikal Mohd Zainal Abiddin shared the photos with his friends and former colleagues. The pictures — which did not show the victim — ended up being widely circulated on social media.
On Monday (Jan 22), Haikal, 21, was fined S$3,000 for taking and leaking pictures of a fatal accident involving Corporal First Class Liu Kai.
He pleaded guilty to two charges under the Official Secrets Act of disseminating photographs of the accident. A third similar charge was taken into consideration for sentencing.
In November 2018, Haikal was despatched with other SCDF personnel to attend to the accident which happened during a field training exercise at Murai Urban Training Facility near Lim Chu Kang.
A Bionix armoured vehicle had reversed into and mounted a Land Rover that Liu was driving. The transport operator from the Singapore Armed Forces’ (SAF’s) Transport Hub West was pronounced dead about 25 minutes later.
An independent committee of inquiry into the death found that the Bionix’s driver had continued reversing despite repeated orders from a specialist to stop.
Haikal is now the second person to be fined for taking photographs of the accident and the fourth person penalised for sharing the pictures.
Last year, Muhammad Arif Azman was fined S$3,000 for taking two photographs of the accident and sharing it in a WhatsApp chat group.
Brandon Tan Jien Jet and Muhammad Zaki Mokhtar were each fined S$1,500. Tan forwarded two photos to six others in a chat group, while Zaki forwarded two photos to his brother.
A fifth individual, Thng Yu Xuan, is accused of sending four photos to five others in a WhatsApp chat group, and his case is pending.
All five men were then NSFs attached to the Jurong Fire Station.
Court documents stated that Haikal, Arif and Thng were part of a team from SCDF who arrived at the accident scene on Nov 3, 2018.
Haikal had forwarded the photographs he took to a WhatsApp group comprising 24 present and former SCDF personnel attached to Jurong Fire Station. He also sent the same photographs to a friend who was serving his National Service with SAF at Keat Hong camp.
Captain Dinesh K Verlachamy, commander of the Jurong Fire Station, was told that photographs of the accident were circulating on WhatsApp and he immediately ordered everyone to gather at the fire station for investigations, to interview them and find out who had leaked the images.
Haikal and Arif were then identified as the ones who had taken and circulated the photos.
Captain Dinesh filed a police report the day after the fatal incident, reporting a breach of the Official Secrets Act by several of his subordinates at the fire station.
Defence lawyer Noor Mohamed Marican asked the court to impose the lowest possible fine for Haikal because he was a first-time offender who had cooperated fully with police throughout investigations.
"(He) is remorseful and regrets his actions and gives his sincere undertaking that his unlawful conduct will not occur again," Mr Marican said.
For each charge of breaching the Official Secrets Act by disseminating the photographs, Haikal could have been jailed up to two years and fined up to S$2,000.
