She said Kong had difficulty finding permanent employment due to health issues and “was looking for someone to blame for (his) problems” and “chose to blame the Government”.
Details of his health issues were not mentioned in court documents.
DPP Tan said Kong had been browsing Facebook using an account with the profile name “Carl Brown” when he saw a CNA article which reported that
Mr Abe had been shot.
An anonymous police report was made, alerting the authorities to what Kong said on Facebook. Kong was arrested that same day.
Also on the same day, Kong commented on an article on Facebook by Yahoo Singapore stating that Mr Abe had died, saying: “Your good friend LHL will join you.”
Kong was referring to PM Lee when he wrote the initials LHL, said DPP Tan.
Investigations also showed that, a month prior, Kong had responded to a post on Instagram that asked users to provide deliberately wrong answers for what they thought the product depicted was in a picture of a Tamagotchi toy, a keychain-sized, virtual pet simulation game.
Kong replied saying the Tamagotchi was “the only weapon against Singapore PM”.
Seeking a 4½- to six-month jail term for Kong, DPP Tan said: “A zero-tolerance approach ought to be taken against any individual who, dissatisfied with the Government for any reason, resorts to inciting violence against the head or senior members of the Government.”
She added that a failure to nip such offensive behaviour in the bud could lead to the undesirable proliferation and normalisation of such offences.
Defence lawyer Rajoo Ravindran asked the court to consider two months’ jail for his client instead, noting that Kong is a first-time offender and had fully cooperated with the police during investigations.
