Singapore Arrests Indian Boy Over Facebook Bomb Threat

SINGAPORE – Singapore police on Tuesday arrested a 13-year-old Indian boy for posting a Facebook message in which he allegedly threatened to bomb a luxury casino resort in the city-state.

The unnamed boy vowed to take “a big big revenge”, “spit everywhere” and “plant bombs on Marina Bay Sands”, a major tourist attraction, on the day he leaves Singapore, according to The Straits Times.

Police said the boy, a student of the Global Indian International School, was arrested under the Breach of Prohibition Against False Threats of Terrorist Acts, with reports saying that the Facebook posting had been taken down.

The offense is punishable by a maximum of five years in jail or a fine of up to Sg$100,000 ($82,000), or both. In 2009, a Singaporean man suffering from depression was jailed for five years for sending hoax email messages warning of terror plots against airlines, the Pentagon and the White House.

In 2012, a Chinese university student was fined for calling Singaporeans “dogs” on a blogsite and an Australian woman was fired by a Singaporean employer for remarks disparaging the local Malay Muslim minority on her Facebook page.