Indian in Singapore pleads guilty to posting hate messages on Facebook

The posts came at a time when Turkey offered stiff resistance to the ultra Sunni Islamic hardline militant group Isis.

Facebook testing end-to-end encryption in Messenger using Secret Conversations
Facebook testing end-to-end encryption in Messenger using Secret Conversations

An Indian Muslim man living in Singapore has admitted to posting hate messages on Facebook advocating attacks on Turkey and warning Singapore not go do the path of that country.

The 30-year-old, identified in court documents as Muhammad Na'im Sahib Marican, pleaded guilty to deliberately wounding the religious and racial feelings of people during the trial at a Singapore district court.

The serial Facebook slur by Muhammad Na'im took off in early June this year, starting as a rant against Turkey. He wrote: "We have a right to slaughter Turkey. God gave us the right even before we were born."

He also said Turkey should be bombed out and warned that Singapore should not be like Turkey. The posts came at a time when Turkey offered stiff resistance to the ultra Sunni Islamic hardline militant group Isis.

After a Facebook user from Singapore complained the social media platform took down the posts. The complainant said Muhammad Na'im posed "a danger to certain groups of people in Singapore as the accused had been showing signs of advocating violence".

Singapore had also cracked down on sympathizers of the Islamic State militant group and detained several people who had links with the terror module and had planned to join them in Syria and Iraq.

The prosecution argued that Muhammad Na'im was suffering from schizophrenia and his posts on social media were a result of his medical condition. The judge John Ng posted the case for further hearing in January and asked the defence to submit a medical assessment report on Muhammad Na'im's condition from the Institute of Mental Health.

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