Former TRS editor expected to plead guilty to sedition; husband to claim trial

SINGAPORE — One of the two editors behind the now-defunct sociopolitical website The Real Singapore (TRS) has indicated that she will plead guilty to all her eight charges, which include seven charges under the Sedition Act.

Ai Takagi, 23, indicated her intention to plead guilty in court on Monday (March 7) at the start of the trial for the duo. But her husband Yang Kaiheng, 27, is still claiming trial, maintaining that he was not involved in the distribution and proprietorship of TRS.

The seven charges they each face under the Sedition Act involve seven articles the prosecution called “particularly egregious”. They include one article, published on Feb 4 last year, which claimed that a Filipino family had caused an incident between the police and Thaipusam participants after the family complained about the playing of musical instruments during a Thaipusam procession.

The other charges are related to articles that were published between October 2013 and February last year that could incite ill-will and hostility among various groups in Singapore, court documents showed.

In addition to the sedition charges, the couple — who were first hauled to court last April — also face one charge each under the Penal Code for not producing accounts and bank statements for mobile and online advertisements to the police during investigations.

The prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutor G Kannan, argued that the duo used TRS as a vehicle for financial gain by festering racism and xenophobia. It will seek to show that they doctored contributions from ordinary Singaporeans to “brazenly play up” racial and religious fault lines and create social divides, so as to drive a high volume of Internet traffic to TRS’ website and Facebook page.

“There was no concern about the credibility of the articles published ... They even resorted to outright and blatant fabrication in order to attract Internet users to their website, all with the objective of increasing their advertising revenue,” charged DPP Kannan in an opening statement delivered this morning.

The TRS’ own publicity material showed that the website was ranked the 35th most popular among Internet users in Singapore at the material time, edging out the websites of some mainstream media. Based on bank statements, Takagi and Yang earned sums ranging from A$20,000 (S$20,506) to more than A$50,000 per month.

The allegedly seditious content repeatedly targeted various groups of foreigners residing in Singapore, such as Filipinos and Chinese nationals.

In a statement after the hearing, the couple’s lawyer Choo Zheng Xi said Takagi was “taking responsibility for her role” in running TRS, while Yang was claiming trial to “clear his name”.

“This was also not an easy decision for Mr Yang to make; he wants nothing more than for his nightmare to end,” said Mr Choo. “Mr Yang will put up a vigorous defence in the hope of obtaining justice.”

A mention has been fixed on Tuesday for Takagi to enter her plea. Yang’s trial will resume on Friday, after Takagi’s case concludes.

The prosecution will call on six witnesses for Yang’s trial. Five of them are police officers, including Deputy Superintendent of Police Roy Lim, who is the investigation officer for this case. The other is a Mdm Gowri, who will testify in relation to the article regarding the Thaipusam procession held on Feb 3 last year.

If convicted of publishing seditious material, Yang and Takagi could be fined up to S$5,000 and jailed up to three years for each charge.

TRS was ordered to cease operations in May last year, after the Media Development Authority said it had broken rules under the Internet Code of Practices by publishing articles that were against public interest and national harmony.