SINGAPORE — A former paramedic with a private ambulance operator was on Tuesday (Aug 7) fined S$3,000 under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), after she sent her boyfriend a photograph of a foreign domestic worker who had hung herself. She also sent him a photo of a call sheet issued by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

Her boyfriend later shared the photograph of the deceased with his friends via a WhatsApp chat group, and it made its rounds on social media.

Nurrizah Afiqah Hussain, 27, now a student, pleaded guilty to two offences under the OSA on Tuesday. She admitted to unlawfully sending two photos — of the deceased and the SCDF call sheet — to her boyfriend, Fazli Hisham Mohd Fairuz Shah, 28.

She did it because wanted to "share" her "experience" with him, court documents stated, even though she knew that she was not supposed to do so.

Nurrizah started working in 2014 as a paramedic with Unistrong Technology, which was contracted to respond to medical emergencies on behalf of the SCDF. As part of her employment contract, she was required to keep any information obtained during the course of her work strictly confidential.

On Feb 1 last year, she was at the Marine Parade Fire Post at Marine Terrace on standby when she received information to respond to a call. A man had called 999 to report that his domestic helper had hanged herself when the family was overseas for five days.

Nurrizah took a photo of the call sheet and sent it to her boyfriend via WhatsApp. She later took another photo of the call sheet and sent it to a WhatsApp chat group comprising 19 employees from Unistrong. This was even though there was no official reason for her to do that since apart from her and two other members in the chat group, the rest were not activated to respond to the incident.

After that, Nurrizah, her two colleagues and a trainee went to the caller's apartment together with police officers to carry out their duties.

Before leaving, ambulance driver Shaik Haziq Fahmi Shaik Nasair Johar, then 29, took a photo of the deceased's body that was still hanging, while Nurrizah shone a torchlight on the body to enable him to take the photo. Haziq then sent the photo to the same WhatsApp group of Unistrong employees, which violates the OSA, court documents said.

Using what Haziq had sent, Nurrizah forwarded the photo of the deceased to Fazli, who then sent it and the image of the SCDF call sheet to his friends.

One of his friends in the chat group forwarded the photos to three other domestic helpers here, and one of them posted the images on Facebook. As the two photos started to circulate on social media, the deceased's agent found out about them and informed the deceased's employer.

The employer called the police and a report was made on Feb 3 last year. Nurrizah was arrested exactly a year later and faced three charges under the OSA. 

For each charge, she could have been jailed up to two years and fined up to S$2,000. 

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a statement on Tuesday that it takes a serious view of any misconduct or wrongdoing by anyone contracted to provide emergency ambulance services under the Private Ambulance Operator arrangement, and will refer such matters for investigation. Anyone who breaks the law will face the full extent of the law, the statement added.

The cases against Fazli and Haziq are pending.

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