Authorities Explain Why Some People Who Breached COVID-19 Haven’t Been Charged While Some Have Been

In the past two months, there are many cases of people being charged in court for breaching Covid-19 rules:

• The lady who invited a man into her hotel room to provide sexual services
• The man who visited his cousin-in-law
• The seven people who were charged for the Robertson Quay incident
• as well as bak kut teh fellow who didn’t know stay-home-notice starts straight away

Which is all well and good, but some people are questioning why not all rulebreakers have been charged.

For example, court documents did not specify if the lady’s client was charged and there were obviously more than just seven people in the viral images of Robertson Quay.

Turns out, there’s a reason for it and the authorities decides to explain why.

Every Case Is Assessed Based On Facts & Circumstances

In a response to Channel News Asia, the Attorney-General Chamber says that every case is assessed to see if it needs to be brought to court.

Some of the factors include:

• How severe the breach was
• The culpability of the offender (How much is the offender to blame for the incident)

An offence committed in full view of the public that was done on purpose to break the law is considered as “particularly egregious” (very, very bad).

For example, the man who visited his cousin-in-law:

Not only did  Francis Soh Seng Chye breach the rules, but he had also posted his actions on social media to flaunt his breaching of the Covid-19 rules.

His cousin-in-law, Lye Baoru, was issued a composition fine of $300.

In another case, for the Chinese national who was fined $7,000 for inviting her client into her apartment to provide him with sexual services, Lawyer Chooi Jing Yen, a partner at Eugene Thuraisingam LLP, pointed out that “the procurement of sexual services” (buying of sex) isn’t illegal in Singapore.

As for the Robertson Quay incident, he said that the worst offenders may be chosen by the AGC to be charged.

The AGC can decide who, when and how to prosecute offenders based on the Constitution.

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How AGC Decides

Lawyer Marshall Lim, a former deputy public prosecutor and deputy senior state counsel who was at AGC for eight years, said that such decisions are always made “in the public interest”.

According to him, the public interest means:

• Prosecutions are conducted in the name of the public;
• offences are prosecuted for the good of the public;
• proceedings are conducted according to values expected by the public;
• and action is taken in the eye of the public.

And sometimes, it’s not the same as public opinion, even if 100% of Singaporeans disagree with them.

In short: It’s not a petition, guys.

Does this mean some offenders get off scot-free? Turns out, it’s not.

Not Prosecuted Does Not Mean Not Punished

As you can tell from the man-cousin-in-law case, just because the lady wasn’t charged in court doesn’t mean she’s not punished.

She was fined $300.

Mr Chooi pointed out that for offences that were not prosecuted (charged in court), they could be dealt with in other venues such as warnings or fines.

It’s A Filter

There are millions of people breaking millions of rules in one way or another.

Prosecutorial discretion is a means to filter and lessen the burdens that could be put on the courts and prosecution otherwise.

Yeah, it’s like how companies filter their candidates via education levels because their HR recruiters would have to work 24/7 otherwise to fill up vacancies.

Moral of the story? Don’t break the rules and flaunt about it online. That’ll just increase your chances of getting infamous overnight.