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Civil servant found guilty of sending hoax terrorism e-mail

Other News Materials 12 January 2008 05:23 (UTC +04:00)

( dpa )- A civil servant who sent messages to Singapore government websites warning of terrorist attacks was found guilty of the hoaxes, news reports said Saturday.

Neo Khoon Sing, 38, was the first person in the city-state to be tried under the UN anti-terrorism measures introduced after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Then a senior manager with the National Environment Agency, Neo sent three e-mail messages on October 18-19, 2005 to the websites of the Ministry of Home Affairs and prime minister's office, The Straits Times said.

All three were sent with fake Muslim names.

The message that went to the prime minister's office said there was a "plot to conduct suicide bomb" attacks against the prime minister and members of parliament "in the coming weeks."

UN regulations make it a criminal offence to spread false alarms about terrorist attacks.

Neo maintained that someone else must have used his computer to send the messages while he had stepped out of the office, the report said.

Judge Bala Reddy on Friday scheduled sentencing for January 17. Neo faces a fine of up to 100,000 Singapore dollars (69,000 US dollars) and a jail term of up to five years on each of three counts.

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