Woman charged in court for sneezing on another woman during circuit breaker

Singapore— Sun Szu-Yen, a 46-year-old Taiwanese national, was charged in court on Wednesday (Apr 22) for sneezing in the direction of, as well as verbally abusing, another woman earlier this month, when the circuit breaker rules had already been put in place.

While standing at the entrance of ION Orchard at 4:43 on the afternoon of April 12, Ms Sun is said to have intentionally harassed a woman named Devika Rani Muthu Krishna, sneezing in her direction and yelling at her to “shut up.”

Her actions are in breach of the Protection from Harassment Act.

Through a Mandarin interpreter, Ms Sun told the court that she does not believe what she did in the incident with Ms Devika constitutes harassment. Moreover, while Ms Sun said she will be claiming trial, she added that she is able to defend herself, and will refuse the services of a lawyer to represent her in the legal matter.

Her next court appearance is Wednesday, April 29.

Ms Sun faces up to six months jail and a maximum fine of S$5,000 or both, if she is found guilty of the charge of causing harassment by exhibiting abusive behaviour and using insulting words.

This is not Ms Sun’s first offence. News reports say that she threw a model globe, a plastic chair, a vacuum cleaner, a glass bottle, and some pencils down from the third floor of her condominium on Fifth Avenue at 10 o’clock on June 4 of last year. She also faces a separate charge of endangering the personal safety of others through a rash act.

For this charge, Ms Sun could be facing a 6-month jail term and a maximum fine of S$2,500.

Ms Sun is only one among several people who have displayed strange, rude, or even racially tinged behavior during this circuit breaker.

A drunk man was caught on video tearing away the barricade tape from an exercise corner, and went on to critique the Health Minister, saying, “I think, personally, that the Minister of Health, it is not that he’s not doing his duty, you see, he’s not listening to us properly”.

In a separate incident, an Indian woman overheard a Chinese woman telling her young child, “If you see any Indians, don’t stand near them. They are the ones spreading coronavirus.”

In another incident, an older woman refused to leave a hawker center where she had sat down to enjoy her bowl of kway teow, after pushing away the plastic sheeting laid down to forbid diners. She told enforcement officers and passersby in Mandarin that she did not want to take her food home because she has back pain and that makes her walk slowly. Presumably, her food would have gone cold by the time she got home.

In yet another example of recent bizarre behavior, a man was seen shooting bubble tea pearls at a metal signboard. —/TIME

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