Activist Kokila Annamalai to be charged with failing to comply with POFMA order
The POFMA order relates to comments Ms Annamalai, 37, made in 2024 about the death penalty in Singapore.
Annamalai Kokila Parvathi at the State Courts on Jun 27, 2024. (File photo: CNA/Jeremy Long)
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SINGAPORE: Activist Kokila Annamalai will be charged on Thursday (Apr 23) for failing to comply with a Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) correction direction.
The POFMA order relates to comments Ms Annamalai, 37, made in 2024 about the death penalty in Singapore.
The POFMA Office said in a media release on Tuesday that a 37-year-old woman would be charged in court on Thursday for failing to comply with a POFMA correction direction.
It did not name Ms Annamalai, but flagged an article on the government's Factually website that indicated she was the person who was set to be charged.
CNA understands that she is the second person to be charged under POFMA, after Jay Ish’haq Rajoo, who was charged with the more serious crime of communicating false statements of fact under POFMA.
On Oct 2 and 3, 2024, Annamalai made posts on her Facebook and X accounts. The authorities said then the posts falsely stated that “the government schedules and stays executions arbitrarily without regard for due legal process”, and that “the state does not bear the legal burden of providing a drug trafficking charge against the accused person”.
On Oct 5, 2024, a POFMA direction was issued for her to carry correction notices on her social media posts. It is alleged that she did not comply with the correction.
Annamalai will be charged with one count of failing to comply with the POFMA direction, without reasonable excuse.
If convicted, she may face a fine of up to S$20,000 (US$15,700), up to 12 months' jail or both.
