There’s a reason why classified information is labelled as ‘classified’ right?
Well, it looks some some people didn’t get the memo.
A 37-year-old public servant has been arrested under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for allegedly leaking an image of the suspect of the early morning stabbing at Tampines on Wednesday, 10 February.
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The incident involved a 42-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man, believed to be her assailant. They were found at Block 206 Tampines Street 21 and Block 205A Punggol Field respectively. Both parties were taken to the hospital but later passed away.
The lookout message was spread around by the public servant when he took a picture of it and later shared it with his friend, a 60-year-old man, through WhatsApp.
He had originally received the message when the police had sent it to various government agencies at 7.30 am on the day of the incident.
The image contained the suspect’s name, picture, date of birth and nationality, as well as the police report number.
While his friend was not authorised to receive such classified information, he continued to share the message with others who were also unauthorised recipients. They may also be similarly liable under the OSA, according to The Straits Times.
The police had urged the public to refrain from circulating the lookout message, which also contained a picture of the suspect from a security camera, as well as an image of the victim.
“The Government takes a serious view of any wrongful communication of confidential information and will deal firmly with anyone who does so,” said the police.
Not The First Time
Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time people have been arrested for leaking unauthorised documents.
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It just seems as if people are determined to “de-classify” classified information.
A particular case most of us remember in our hazy circuit breaker days was when another public servant was arrested for disseminating post-circuit breaker plans on messaging platforms.
A 35-year-old civil servant had also accessed a patient’s records without authorisation and leaked new daily COVID-19 case numbers with her private WeChat group, which was then circulated further.
Under the OSA, an offence of wrongful communication of information carries a jail term of up to two years and a fine of up to S$2,000.
So please, don’t go around spreading top-secret information.
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Feature Image: Google Maps
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