Singapore court denies bail to anti-vaccine group founder on COVID-19 vaccine-related fraud

Anti-vaccine group Healing the Divide’s founder Iris Koh has been denied bail in the High Court as the prosecution said that at least 20 patients were involved in an alleged vaccination fraud conspiracy that she has been charged with, a first of its kind case opposing COVID-19 treatment in Singapore.

Koh, 46, was last week charged with conspiring with general practitioner Jipson Quah, 33, to make false representations to the Ministry of Health (MOH) that unvaccinated people were given the Beijing-produced Sinopharm vaccine as a protection against coronavirus when they were not, The Straits Times newspaper reported on Tuesday.

She was arrested on Jan 21, 2022.

Dr. Quah and his assistant Thomas Chua Cheng Soon, 40, who allegedly submitted a false COVID-19 vaccination record for an unvaccinated woman in a case linked to an anti-vaccine group, were granted bail on Monday.

For dishonestly making a false representation, the two men could be jailed for up to 20 years or fined, or punished with both.

Though their nationalities were not mentioned in media reports, the trio is believed to be Singaporeans.

On Monday, prosecutors, arguing against Koh's bid for bail, said at least 20 patients were involved in the alleged conspiracy, and that ongoing investigations have revealed offenses relating to remote pre-event testing and false vaccine exemption letters, the report said.

The prosecution said Koh has been uncooperative since her arrest and this has delayed police investigations.

Koh tore up a police statement on her fifth day in remand, tore up the charge that was read to her last Friday, in what the judge said was “blatant disrespect for the investigative and court processes”.

She also repeatedly complained of anxiety and panic attacks but refused medical attention.

Justice Vincent Hoong agreed with the prosecutors that Koh's lack of cooperation with police investigators contributed to the need to remand her for investigations.

''I agree with the prosecution that it is precisely due to the applicant's efforts to frustrate and impede the investigations which have significantly contributed to the need for this further period of remand,'' Singapore daily quoted Justice Hoong as saying.

Justice Hoong said, ''The consequent delays to investigations are no doubt caused by her active and deliberate attempts to frustrate those very investigations.'' He noted that her ''belligerence, obstructive behavior and lack of cooperation with investigations'' during the initial period of remand, which started on January 23, was ''appalling''.

The judge said Koh's application for bail was ''wholly devoid of merit''.

He noted that she has been charged with a non-bailable offense, and the onus was on her to provide evidence to satisfy the court that bail should be granted.

Meanwhile, the MOH reported 4,241 COVID-19 cases and one death on Monday. There were 240 imported cases - all travelers entering Singapore.

The total number of coronavirus cases that Singapore has detected since the first case in January 2020 now stands at 352,811 with 855 deaths.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)