(UPDATED 5:45pm 12 November 2013. Added details about court hearing on Tuesday afternoon)
A Singaporean man charged on Tuesday with hacking the Ang Mo Kio town council website in October was ordered remanded to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for psychiatric evaluation for up to two weeks.
James Raj , 35, was charged under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act.
He is accused of defacing a portion of the Ang Mo Kio town council website by adding the image of the Guy Fawkes Mask, displaying a statement addressed to Member of Parliament Ang Hin Kee and signing off with the name “The Messiah”.
In various hacking incidents recently, the person behind them had signed off as "The Messiah" -- in reality, the various hacks could possibly be the work of different individuals.
Prosecutors requested in court on Tuesday afternoon for Raj to be remanded to IMH on the basis of the accused's statement to the investigative officer that he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Raj objected and claimed that when he was arrested by police in Kuala Lumpur on 4 November he had been assaulted and suffered a concussion.
District Judge Kessler Soh, however, ruled in favour of the prosecution's application to have Raj remanded.
While undergoing the psychiatric evaluation, Raj will not be given access to third parties outside of IMH.
Standing in court, Raj, a skinny, balding man of average height, also requested to speak to his lawyer, M Ravi and asserted that some of his statements about ADHD had been taken out of context.
Speaking to reporters outside court after the hearing, Ravi said, "It is extremely troubling about what he had stated, the fact that he had been assaulted, and that he had clarified quite clearly that he does not have a mental condition and yet he was sent to IMH."
The next court mention is scheduled for 26 November this year.
Wanted by CNB
A police statement released Tuesday said that the suspect was also wanted by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) for outstanding drug-related offences in Singapore. He was believed to be hiding in Kuala Lumpur.
"The Singapore Police and CNB worked very closely with the Royal Malaysia Police to track down the suspect in Malaysia and arrested him on 4 November 2013," the statement said. He has been charged on 5 November for drug-related offences.
The Straits Times reported that Raj, whom police believe had acted in isolation, was also charged for hacking The Straits Times blogs, the PCF website and Sun Ho's website.
Today reported that Raj had told the court that he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), is currently taking medication, claims to be suicidal, suffering from hallucinations and seeing things flashing randomly. The report added that he is being remanded at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for a psychiatric evaluation.
M Ravi told Yahoo Singapore that he had been denied access to his client since Monday.
“My client faces serious violation of his constitutional rights of not only having access being denied to him yesterday but also the police denying him access to his counsels… I was denied access to speak to him for even five minutes [in court]," he said.
M Ravi added that he will “file an urgent application to the High Court to seek access to him” if the access is still not granted when court stands at 2:30pm.
Investigations into other incidents
Separately, five men, aged between 17 and 45, are helping in investigations into the alleged “hacking” of websites belonging to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Istana. In those incidents, suspects had exploited a vulnerability in the said websites to display pages from other sources.
- With reporting by Nurul Azliah Aripin
The court played dirty! Tsk tsk tsk ! No credibility!
