A senior chief warden who was previously charged with eight counts of trying to obtain bribes from an inmate was accused on Thursday (Nov 23) of two new charges under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act.
The warden, Kobi Krishna Ayavoo, 50, is alleged to have abetted another prison officer Firoz Khan Shaik Fazaluddin, 41, by instigating the latter to access data held in the Singapore Prison Service computer system without authorisation.
The case reportedly involved the data of inmate Chong Keng Chye, a convicted child batterer in the Prisons Operations and Rehabilitation System (Ports).
Chong, 48, had prior to the incident, been sentenced to 20 years’ jail for one of the worst child abuse cases.
He was also given nine strokes of the cane.
Chong had abused his girlfriend’s seven-year-old son for more than seven months, until the boy died on June 3, 1999.
Court documents revealed that he had forced the boy to go around naked at home, and even forced the boy to eat his own faeces, reported The Straits Times.
On at least one occasion, Chong had dripped hot wax on the boy’s testicles and told the victim that it would cure him of all his ‘ailments’.
Even the boy’s two sisters were not spared.
The boy suffered more than 140 injuries, including spinal fractures, bleeding in the brain and other injuries that appeared to stem from cigarette burns and cuts.
In addition to child abuse, Chong was also convicted of cheating $300,000 from five people.
Kobi also allegedly abetted chief warder Mohamed Sarraj Shadul Hameed to similarly access ‘unspecified information’ within Ports without authorisation.
In July 2017, Kobi was charged in court for corruptly attempting to get loans of up to $70,000 and cash amounting to $11,000 from Chong, in return for the inmate’s request to transfer to a different institution.
The alleged offences happened within Changi Prison between September 2015 and March 2016.
Firoz Khan was charged with knowingly causing a computer to perform a function for securing access without authority to data held in the prison’s computer system by viewing Chong’s personal particulars on July 24, 2017.
He has indicated that he wishes to plead guilty and will be engaging a lawyer.
In response to the incident, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau said that Singapore adopts a zero-tolerance approach towards corruption and other criminal acts.
It warns that action will be taken against any party involved in corrupt practices.
If convicted, Kobi and Firoz could be fined up to $5,000 each and/or jailed up to two years for each computer misuses.
The maximum penalty for corruption is a $100,000 fine and five years’ jail.
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