SINGAPORE — A 53-year-old man was on Tuesday (March 26) remanded at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) after being charged with making false bomb threats to two politicians, including Taiwan's legislative speaker.

Loo Peng Seng, a Singaporean, was handed four charges of communicating false information of a harmful thing.

This comes after the police said in a statement on Monday evening that they were alerted on March 4 to a case of an alleged bomb threat.

“A member of the public reported that she came across a post on Facebook by a public figure based overseas which stated that he had received bomb threats from someone claiming to be from Singapore,” said the police.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that the man had no intention or means to carry out his threats.”

‘GOING TO BRING A LOT OF BOMBS TO PUT IN YOUR CAR’

According to court documents, Loo allegedly sent a false bomb threat via Facebook Messenger on Feb 28, 2024 to a Han Guo Yu.

Loo allegedly wrote: “Han Guo Yu, I am going to bring a lot of bombs to put in your car or home.”

Mr Han Kuo-yu, of the Kuomintang party, was last month elected speaker of Taiwan's legislature. He was a Kuomintang candidate at the January 2020 presidential election but lost to Ms Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party.

Later that day, Loo allegedly sent a false bomb threat to another politician in Taiwan, Mr Lo Chih-Chiang, via the same social media platform, writing that he would “use the bombs to blow you up to pieces”.

The next day, Loo allegedly sent another message to Mr Han, saying that he was “going to make sure I will also blow you up your family members with car bombs”.

Loo was also accused of sending another false threat on March 1 to Mr Lo.

“Mr Lo Chih Chiang, I am going to bomb your home. And I have a lot of bombs to bomb the Legislative Yuan building,” he wrote. This refers to Taiwan's main legislative building.

Court documents did not state if they were referring to the Taiwanese politician of the same name, Kuomintang member Lo Chih-Chiang.

However, that Mr Lo put up a post on Facebook on March 2, stating that he had received a bomb threat.

He also uploaded screenshots of texts he received from a "Spencer Lui" via Facebook Messenger on Feb 29 and March 1, containing similar threats as stated in Loo’s court documents.

The dates in the screenshot correspond with the dates stated in the court documents of when Loo sent out his threats. The screenshots also refer to the threats against Mr Han Guo Yu.

Loo’s case is scheduled to be mentioned in court again on April 9.

If found guilty, he could be jailed for up to seven years, fined not more than S$50,000, or both.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that Mr Han Kuo-yu contested the 2024 Taiwanese presidential election and lost to Mr Lai Ching-te. This is inaccurate. Mr Han contested the 2020 presidential election and lost to Ms Tsai Ing-wen. We are sorry for the error.