Doctor fined S$10,000 over anti-Islam comments in Facebook post

SINGAPORE: A doctor who posted offensive remarks against Muslims in a social media post was fined S$10,000 (US$7,700) on Monday (May 19).

Dr Kho Kwang Po, 85, is a registered medical practitioner whose practising certificate expired on Dec 31, 2020, the Singapore Medical Council previously told CNA. 

Two police reports were lodged against the Singaporean in June 2021 - one by an anonymous person who stated that Dr Kho made racist remarks on Facebook that were "highly insulting towards Islam". 

The other person reported that Dr Kho had posted seditious content denigrating Islam on Facebook for several years.

Dr Kho, who was the only person with access to his account, first made the Facebook post on Apr 21, 2016, but reposted the same content on Apr 21, 2021, even though he had been administered a conditional warning over the original post. 

His post was available for the public to see, and Dr Kho intended for the public to view it, Deputy Public Prosecutor Sean Teh told the court. 

The prosecution urged the court to fine Dr Kho S$10,000, arguing that Dr Kho made the posts with some deliberation. 

Mr Teh said the offence would have ordinarily warranted an imprisonment term, but the prosecution had factored in Dr Kho's advanced age, his plea of guilt to the charge of deliberately intending to wound the religious feelings of Muslims, and how the posts had not gained significant traction. 

"The accused’s Facebook profile was publicly available, thus the post in question was available for all to view. In fact, the accused had been making many Muslim-directed posts over a prolonged period of time," said Mr Teh. 

"These posts were made with deliberation: the present post is a re-post of one made five years prior, evidencing how steadfast he has been in his views."

Dr Kho's lawyers, Kenneth Au-Yong and Josiah Tan, said their client apologised for his misjudgment. 

Mr Au-Yong echoed the prosecution's points about Dr Kho's age and the limited impact of the social media posts. 

"He is not likely to repeat this offence, and as the (prosecution) said, he has shown remorse and made a plea of guilt," said Mr Au-Yong.

District Judge Eddy Tham said he found the words "objectively insulting". 

"As a doctor, you should have known better than to propagate such views on the internet," Judge Tham said. 

The district judge added that he had read Dr Kho's personal plea in mitigation, expressing his remorse, where the doctor had admitted to being overly fixated on what he read on the internet, and accepting propaganda without critical examination. 

Judge Tham said he hoped that Dr Kho realised the folly of his actions. 

Referring to the grounds the prosecution had raised in arguing for a fine, Judge Tham agreed that a non-custodial term would be sufficient. 

He imposed the maximum fine allowed under the Magistrates' Courts. 

For uttering words with the deliberate intent to wound racial feelings, an offender could be jailed for up to three years, fined, or both.