SINGAPORE: An officer from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) will be charged in court on Friday (Oct 25) over the death of full-time national serviceman (NSF) Liu Kai.
Captain Ong Lin Jie, 28, will be charged with a rash act causing death, the police said in a news release.
Five other people will also be charged under the Official Secrets Act for leaking photographs of the incident.
Corporal First Class Liu Kai died after an accident at Jalan Murai training area on Nov 3 last year.
The wake of the late NSF Liu Kai, who died in a training incident on Nov 3. (Photo: Jeremy Long)
CFC Liu was operating a Land Rover as part of a field training exercise when a Bionix vehicle reversed into his vehicle, partially mounting it. The 22-year-old died from his injuries and an army-wide safety timeout was called, including overseas training exercises.
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“Two of them, Muhammad Arif Bin Azman and Mohamad Haikal Bin Mohamad Zainal Abiddin, were serving their National Service with the Singapore Civil Defence Force and were at the scene where they took photographs of the incident and disseminated them via WhatsApp,” said the police.
“The other three persons, Brandon Tan Jien Jet, Thng Yu Xuan and Muhammad Zaki Bin Haji Mokhtar, received the photographs, and despite knowing that the photographs were sensitive official information, shared the photographs further without authorisation.”
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If convicted of a rash act causing death, CPT Ong faces up to five years’ jail, a fine, or both.
If convicted of wrongful communication of official information, the other five charged can be fined up to S$2,000 and jailed for up to two years.
