Ex-prison officers, inmate, charged over communicating confidential details
SINGAPORE — Two former prison officers are said to have breached the Official Secrets Act for communicating confidential information about other inmates to a prison inmate, including residential addresses and next-of-kin contact details.
The two ex-Singapore Prison Service (SPS) officers, Muhammad Zul Helmy Abdul Latip, 32, and Muhammad Fattahullah Mohd Nordin, 37, were charged on Monday (1 November) alongside Tanah Merah Prison inmate Abdul Karim Mohamed Kuppai Khan, 35, who is said to have threatened to harm a fellow inmate's family.
The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau were alerted to the case by the SPS.
Helmy was handed four counts of wrongful communication under the Official Secrets Act.
Fattahullah was slapped with two counts of wrongful communication and one count of accessing data relating to an inmate’s location at Tanah Merah Prison without authorisation on 11 October last year – a contravention of the Computer Misuse Act.
Helmy purportedly informed Karim details about other inmates at Tanah Merah Prison on four occasions in October last year. The information included other inmates’ age, residential addresses, criminal charges and the contact details of their next-of-kin.
Fattahullah also supposedly told Karim locations of fellow inmates on six occasions last year.
Karim was handed one count of criminally intimidating an inmate by reciting his address to him, and six counts of receiving the wrongfully communicated information, such as fellow inmates' age, location within prison, and their criminal charges.
According to court records, Karim is still serving a sentence of six years and eight days, which began from 24 October 2015. Apart from his fresh charges, Karim currently faces 66 charges which are pending. These are mostly for drugs, cheating, and Road Traffic Act offences.
If convicted of an offence of wrongful communication under the Official Secrets Act, a person can be jailed up to two years, or fined up to $2,000, or both.
If convicted of criminal intimidation, an offence under the Penal Code, Karim can be jailed up to two years, or fined, or both. If convicted of having unauthorised access to computer material under the Computer Misuse Act, Fattahulllah can be fined up to $5,000, jailed up to two years, or both.
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