A 40-year-old woman who claimed that she is a “sovereign” citizen who is above the law was charged in a district court on Tuesday (May 5) for public nuisance and breaching circuit breaker measures.
After being found refusing to wear a mask in public, Ms Paramjeet Kaur said, “The law is… you can’t tell me what to do”.
In a video circulating on social media, Ms Paramjeet said that the police had previously stopped her at the market and had let her off without a warning or a fine.
She added: “I’m a sovereign… This is something people are not going to know what it is.”
She was also not observing safe distancing when buying food at a stall and took photographs and videos of the safe-distancing ambassadors and police when told to leave.
Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam wrote in a Facebook post that, “There is a movement in the US, and adherents to that movement, (broadly speaking) reject Government, reject the police and any kind of authority”.
“Well and good. But then such people should not live within society – she should not expect any of the benefits that come from this system of governance, including her security, medical care, other benefits”, he added.
Ms Paramjeet faces three charges under the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) (Control Order) Regulations 2020 and one charge of public nuisance.
A TODAY report said that she told her lawyer, Mr Satwant Singh, “I would just like to say something. I am a living woman and that is my only capacity in this matter. I extend my sovereign immunity to Satwant and I asked Satwant to represent me.”
According to the report on TODAY, Mr Satwant read the investigation officer’s report and added that it stated Ms Paramjeet had claimed she was “not a person” and wanted “to be referred to as thou, thy, thee”.
District Judge Clement Tan disagreed that there would be any prejudice to Kaur if she was remanded at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) and ordered her to be sent there.
She will return to court on May 19.
If convicted of public nuisance, she could be fined up to S$2,000.
She could also be fined up to S$10,000, jailed up to six months or both for each charge under the Covid-19 regulations if convicted. /TISG