Doctor linked to HIV data leak set to stand trial for drug-related charges

SINGAPORE — The doctor whose boyfriend leaked online the confidential information of 14,200 individuals who are carrying the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) will be standing trial on May 29 for drug-related charges.

Ler Teck Siang, 37, is contesting one charge of trafficking in and administering methamphetamine, as well as another charge of being in possession of a drug utensil.

A third drug-related charge — failure to provide a urine sample to the authorities — has been stood down.

Ler allegedly committed the offences while he was on trial for other criminal acts, including abetment of cheating and giving false information to a public servant. He was later convicted and sentenced to two years’ jail in November last year for the earlier charges, which included helping his American boyfriend forge his blood test results so that he could continue to work in Singapore.

For the drug-related charges on Thursday, court documents showed that on the evening of Feb 26 last year, Ler allegedly administered methamphetamine — a controlled drug — to one Sim Eng Chee in a room at the Swissotel the Stamford hotel.

A few days later, on March 2, at the lobby of Conrad Centennial Hotel, Ler is said to have in his possession a syringe, intended for the administration of a controlled drug.

In the evening on the same day, he allegedly failed to provide a urine specimen to an officer from the Central Narcotics Bureau.

Ler still has a pending charge under the Official Secrets Act for failing to take reasonable care of confidential information regarding HIV-positive patients.

For trafficking in and administering the controlled drug, Ler could face a jail term of between five and 20 years, with caning.

BACKGROUND OF THE CASE

• Ler, a registered general practitioner, found himself in the news again early this week when his boyfriend, Mikhy K Farrera Brochez, illegally published online the confidential data of 14,200 persons diagnosed with HIV and of more than 2,000 others who were identified through contact tracing. These records date as far back as 1985, with the most recent ones from January 2013.
• Ler used to be head of the National Public Health Unit at the Ministry of Health (MOH) and had access to the HIV Registry. He resigned in January 2014.
• Brochez, now 33, lived in Singapore on an employment pass between January 2008 and June 2016.
• In 2008, Ler deceived the authorities by submitting his own blood sample so that Brochez, who is HIV-positive, could get an employment pass.
• In March 2017, Brochez, a former polytechnic lecturer in Singapore, was convicted of numerous fraud and drug-related offences and was jailed 28 months.
• Brochez’s fraud offences were in relation to him lying about his HIV status to the Ministry of Manpower in order to obtain and maintain his employment pass, providing false information to police officers during a criminal investigation and using forged degree certificates in job applications.
• He was deported from Singapore in May last year after completing his sentence.
• Last December, Brochez was charged in the United States with trying to trespass into his mother's house.   
• Last year, after Brochez was deported, the ministry received information that he still had part of the records and the information “did not appear to have been disclosed in any public manner”.
• MOH made a police report and notified the affected individuals. 
• MOH said that earlier in May 2016, it already lodged a police report after receiving information that Brochez was in possession of confidential information that appeared to be from its HIV Registry. The properties of Ler and Brochez were searched and all relevant material found were seized and secured by the police.
• On Jan 22 this year, MOH was notified that more information from the registry could be in Brochez’s possession and that he had disclosed the information online. It began contacting all affected individuals on Jan 26.