<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Bomb hoax: Jail term stays
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Ex-civil servant's appeal against 30 months' prison sentence dismissed </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Khushwant Singh
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->THE High Court has upheld a 2 1/2 year jail term for a former civil servant convicted of sending false bomb threats to the Government, including one to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
The ruling came after Neo Khoon Sing appealed against a lower court decision that found him guilty of the hoaxes under the terrorism laws.
In his appeal, Neo claimed he had been framed and that someone logged onto his computer at the National Environment Agency (NEA) to send three bomb threats. Along with the PM's Office, they surfaced on the Ministry of Home Affairs website.
Neo's lawyer, Mr Raymond Lye, told the High Court yesterday that his client's passwords had been written on a piece of paper near his computer at an NEA regional office in Sin Ming Drive and that anyone could have logged on.
Ridiculing the theory, Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong said it was 'something more from the Mission Impossible movies than from reality'.
DPP Ong said Neo's alibi, which included a minute-by-minute account of his working days showing he was not at his desk when the messages were sent, smacked of fabrication.
His arguments convinced Justice Choo Han Teck to dismiss Neo's appeal against the sentence imposed by a district court in January. However, an appeal by the prosecution to increase Neo's jail term failed.
The 39-year-old had been found guilty of three charges of posting bomb hoax messages in 2005. He was jailed a year and three months on each charge by District Judge Bala Reddy, who ordered two of the jail terms to run together, meaning he has to serve a total of 30 months.
The judge ruled that Neo, who was then an NEA senior manager, had e-mailed a Home Affairs Ministry website in October 2005 about a possible suicide bombing in Bedok.
Later the same day, Neo referred to a possible bomb attack at an upcoming event attended by government leaders.
The next day, he sent a message to the PMO Feedback Unit about a suicide bomb plot at an event at the Bedok Reservoir area in the coming weeks. All the messages were sent using fake Muslim names.
Earlier, Neo's lawyer said the evidence used to convict his client was purely circumstantial. He also disputed the prosecution's contention that Neo had sent the bomb hoaxes because he was unhappy over losing a promotion to a Muslim. 'He would have been incredibly dumb to use his office computer to post the hoaxes,' said the lawyer.
But DPP Ong said that Neo had sent the messages anonymously and might not have realised that forensic investigators could trace them back to his computer.
Neo, who has been out on bail, started serving his sentence yesterday. [email protected]
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Ex-civil servant's appeal against 30 months' prison sentence dismissed </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Khushwant Singh
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->THE High Court has upheld a 2 1/2 year jail term for a former civil servant convicted of sending false bomb threats to the Government, including one to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
The ruling came after Neo Khoon Sing appealed against a lower court decision that found him guilty of the hoaxes under the terrorism laws.
In his appeal, Neo claimed he had been framed and that someone logged onto his computer at the National Environment Agency (NEA) to send three bomb threats. Along with the PM's Office, they surfaced on the Ministry of Home Affairs website.
Neo's lawyer, Mr Raymond Lye, told the High Court yesterday that his client's passwords had been written on a piece of paper near his computer at an NEA regional office in Sin Ming Drive and that anyone could have logged on.
Ridiculing the theory, Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong said it was 'something more from the Mission Impossible movies than from reality'.
DPP Ong said Neo's alibi, which included a minute-by-minute account of his working days showing he was not at his desk when the messages were sent, smacked of fabrication.
His arguments convinced Justice Choo Han Teck to dismiss Neo's appeal against the sentence imposed by a district court in January. However, an appeal by the prosecution to increase Neo's jail term failed.
The 39-year-old had been found guilty of three charges of posting bomb hoax messages in 2005. He was jailed a year and three months on each charge by District Judge Bala Reddy, who ordered two of the jail terms to run together, meaning he has to serve a total of 30 months.
The judge ruled that Neo, who was then an NEA senior manager, had e-mailed a Home Affairs Ministry website in October 2005 about a possible suicide bombing in Bedok.
Later the same day, Neo referred to a possible bomb attack at an upcoming event attended by government leaders.
The next day, he sent a message to the PMO Feedback Unit about a suicide bomb plot at an event at the Bedok Reservoir area in the coming weeks. All the messages were sent using fake Muslim names.
Earlier, Neo's lawyer said the evidence used to convict his client was purely circumstantial. He also disputed the prosecution's contention that Neo had sent the bomb hoaxes because he was unhappy over losing a promotion to a Muslim. 'He would have been incredibly dumb to use his office computer to post the hoaxes,' said the lawyer.
But DPP Ong said that Neo had sent the messages anonymously and might not have realised that forensic investigators could trace them back to his computer.
Neo, who has been out on bail, started serving his sentence yesterday. [email protected]
