SINGAPORE: Anti-vaccine activist Iris Koh and her husband, Raymond Ng, did not allow lawyers and a court sheriff to enter their HDB flat at Farrer Park Road on Monday morning (Feb 10) and execute court orders.
The court ordered the couple’s possessions to be seized and sold after they failed to pay the costs ordered in a defamation suit, which was struck out last December.
Koh and Ng, along with three others, had filed the suit against Calvin Cheng, a former Nominated MP. in June 2024 for his critical comments about those who had spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.
However, the judge ruled that Mr Chang’s comments were not defamatory and ordered the litigants to pay Mr Chang.
Mr Cheng hired the lawyers who went to the couple’s flat on Monday but were not allowed to enter the premises.
The Straits Times noted that the sheriff usually does not carry out forced entry in an attempt to execute an enforcement order. However, they may do so in subsequent attempts.
Mr Cheng had written in a Facebook post on June 21, “These people who are spreading misinformation are killing people if they believe them. Goh Meng Seng, Iris Koh, Brad Bower, and their bunch of clowns are not funny. They should be jailed and caned.”
On Dec 3, District Judge Chiah Kok Khun wrote in a judgment that he found what Mr Cheng had written was not defamatory. He ordered the couple, along with Brad Bowyer, Bevan Tey, and Chan Swee Cheong to pay Mr Cheng $8,000 plus GST in costs. The judge also called the suit an abuse of court processes and ordered Ng, Mr Tey, and Mr Chan to pay Mr Cheng a total of $2,500 plus GST in costs.
ST reported that Mr Bowyer, Mr Tey, and Mr Chan have already paid their share. After Ng and Koh did not pay up, the court issued enforcement orders on Jan 21 to seize their possessions: one order involved seizing around $4,900 worth of property from the couple, and the other for seizing around $2,300 worth of property that Ng owns.
Koh 48, perhaps Singapore’s most outspoken anti-vaxxer, has had run-ins with the law in the past few years. In 2021, the Ministry of Health warned that her group, Healing the Divide, shared content that perpetuates falsehoods and misleading information.
Ng called the sheriff’s appearance at their door “inappropriate” since she is still waiting for direction from the court to change its order. She documented the experience on her social media channels.
@iriskoh11 Earlier we had applied for a variation of the court order before paying Calvin Cheng. This morning I woke up to enforcement and cameramen outside my house. #iriskoh #healingthedivide#sgnews #sg #sgtiktok #tiktoksgviral #singapore #getevenai #freeiriskoh #calvincheng #gazythegreat #criminaljustice #tiktoksg🇸🇬
This is just one among the other lawsuits the couple is facing. Last Friday (Feb 7), Ng was charged with cheating 12 people in connection with a business involving vending machines, involving a total of nearly $61,000.
/TISG
Read also: Iris Koh’s husband Raymond Ng slapped with 12 cheating charges over vending machines