Little India Riot: Two alleged rioters remanded for one more week for police investigations
PUBLISHED ONDecember 18, 2013 9:22 AMByWalter Sim
SINGAPORE - Agreeing to the prosecution's request, District Judge Lim Tse Haw cited the scale and sheer amount of evidence involved in the case, but asked for the police to "expedite investigations". The case against them will be heard next Monday, along with 23 others who had first appeared in court on Tuesday.
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Singapore to deport 53 involved in riot
AFP
SINGAPORE - Singapore said Tuesday it will deport 53 South Asian workers and pursue criminal charges against 28 others for their involvement in the city-state's first riot in more than four decades.
"We have taken strong and decisive action to charge, and to repatriate those who took part in the riot to send a strong signal that we will not tolerate actions by anyone which threaten law and order in Singapore," Home Affairs Minister Teo Chee Hean told a news conference.
The riot on December 8 by hundreds of South Asian workers has forced the city-state to examine how it deals with the presence of nearly a million low-paid foreign workers, who drive its economic growth.
The rampage, which erupted after an Indian man was killed by a bus in a district known as Little India, saw 39 people injured, including police officers, and 25 vehicles destroyed.
Fifty-two of the 53 men being deported are Indian nationals, while one is a Bangladeshi, said police commissoner Ng Joo Hee.
They were hauled up on Tuesday morning and will be deported after travel and administrative arrangements are settled, he said.
The 28 men facing rioting charges remain in police custody pending further investigations and can expect seven years in jail plus caning if found guilty.
Seven Indian nationals who had previously been charged were released Tuesday after their charges were withdrawn.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement that investigations showed the 28 facing charges were involved in "acts of violence, damage to property, defying police orders, or inciting others to do so".
The men being deported failed to disperse despite police orders, and threatened public order, "making their continued presence in Singapore undesirable," it said.
About 200 others who were at the scene of the riot but whose involvement was deemed to be "relatively passive" will be handed warnings by the police.