Ai Takagi sentenced to 10 months’ jail for sedition

SINGAPORE — Incensed by the lack of remorse shown in the mitigation plea of Ai Takagi — the editor of the now-defunct sociopolitical website The Real Singapore (TRS) — the prosecution pushed for 14 months’ jail, instead of the 12 months they had initially asked for.

Takagi, 23, who had admitted to four charges of producing and distributing seditious content on TRS, was eventually sentenced to 10 months’ jail by the district judge, after a hearing on Wednesday (March 23). The Australian had three similar charges and another charge for failing to produce documents during police investigations taken into consideration for her sentence.

In an apology letter that was part of her mitigation submissions — which she also read out in court on Wednesday — Takagi, who is two months’ pregnant, said she was not “fully aware of the level of sensitivity needed when dealing with topics related to racial and religious issues in Singapore”.

“I will definitely be more careful with any and all my online postings in future,” she said. “I love Singapore and hope to call it my home permanently.”

Her lawyer Choo Zheng Xi, who asked for 10 to 11 weeks’ jail, argued that Takagi was unlikely to reoffend, given that she was pregnant and would soon have a child to care for. He added that she had been cooperative with the police, allowing them to save “valuable time and resources” by explaining her role at TRS and how it was run.

“These days, Ms Takagi has turned her attention away from the sociopolitical online space and spends her time caring for Mr Yang’s paralysed father and occasionally helps Mr Yang with his ramen stall,” said Mr Choo, referring to Takagi’s Singaporean husband, Yang Kaiheng, 27. He is claiming trial to the same set of charges.

However, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) G Kannan called Takagi’s lack of remorse galling. DPP Kannan said that Takagi’s claim of calling Singapore her home held little weight, given that she had spent only a few months here prior to her arrest. “She had no business meddling in Singapore’s local affairs by publishing articles which fostered anti-foreigner resentment in Singapore,” said DPP Kannan.

Unlike previous cases in which the perpetrator targeted specific racial or religious groups, the articles on TRS perpetuated a more general local–foreigner divide, he said, adding that the site content resulted in widespread public disquiet. Among the seven articles Takagi published was one that falsely claimed that a Filipino family caused a dispute between the police and participants of a Thaipusam procession on Feb 3 last year.

DPP Kannan also questioned the timing of Takagi’s public apology, which came just before she was sentenced, adding that her apology did not address “the most egregious aspect of her conduct — concocting fabrications in order to sensationalise her articles”.

DPP Kannan also reiterated that Takagi had been driven by greed — TRS raked in about A$474,000 (S$489,000) in advertising revenue over 17 months from December 2013 to April 2015. Agreeing that Takagi was a shrewd businesswoman driven by financial gains, District Judge Salina Ishak imposed a sentence of 10 months’ jail. “One cannot and should not hide behind the anonymity of cyberspace to pen or to publish seditious articles which promote feelings of ill-will and hostility,” said the judge, who took into account Takagi’s age. “By generally exploiting the foreigner–local divide, without targeting any specific racial or religious group, the accused through TRS was able to peddle xenophobia to readers generally, instead of appealing to only those who harboured animosity towards a specific race or religion.”

Takagi will start serving her sentence on April 22. VALERIE KOH