Singapore jails Australian for hate crime murder

Singapore – Archyde.com
A Singapore court on Friday sentenced an Australian man to five and a half years in prison; for killing an elderly Singaporean man and injuring his wife after throwing them a bottle of wine, in what a judge described as an act of hostility towards Muslims.
Andrew Gosling was found guilty of “causing death and serious injury by reckless conduct” of throwing a bottle at a group of people downstairs; It injured and killed a 73-year-old man in 2019. The bottle rebounded and hit the man’s wife’s shoulder.
Judge Victor Yeo said: “I agree with the allegation that the current offense contains an element of display of religious hostility and hatred towards Muslims…Such offenses can seriously undermine racial and religious harmony in Singapore and must not be tolerated, and must be dealt with firmly.”
Singapore is a multi-ethnic country with a population of 5.5 million, of whom about 16 percent are Muslims, and includes two larger denominations, Buddhism and Christianity. Most of its residents are of Chinese descent, with significant ethnic Malay and Indian minorities, according to the 2020 census. The two victims were identified as ethnic Malay Muslims.
The court was told that Gosling admitted during the investigation that he was “angry and upset” about the attacks in Bali and Melbourne in which many Australians were killed, and that he wanted to “horrify” the group after learning that they were Muslims.
Prosecutors said Gosling, who was 49 at the time of the crime, escaped shouting “crude and obscene religious terms” about Muslims. He added that his actions had “the broader impact of causing concern in Singapore, particularly among the broader Muslim population” and showed religious hostility.
Gosling’s lawyers said the alcohol may have knocked him out, citing a psychiatric report, and arguing that he was unlikely to have acted with religious motives. They added that he intends to appeal the ruling. The prison sentence will be implemented retroactively from August 2019 when Gosling was taken into custody.