INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

German Graffiti Artists To Face Caning In Singapore

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 21:42 PST, Mar 4, 2015

Singapore is not a good country to indulge in a bit of spray-painting, it seems, as two German men received sentences of nine months imprisonment along with three strokes of the cane. The punishment of caning dates back to British colonial times in Singapore.

The two men, aged 22 and 21, were caught after they broke into a depot and spray-painted a metro train in Singapore

While the two men were not named in the German media under that country’s privacy guidelines, the Telegraph has published their names as Andreas Von Knorre, 22, and Elton Hinz, 21, and both reportedly hail from Leipzig in Germany. Each of them pleaded guilty to one count of vandalism and two counts of trespassing.

Their lawyer told the court that both men were “remorseful” about their crime and that they offered to pay the costs of cleaning the train. He also pointed out the youth of his clients, saying it was their first offense and that at the time of the court hearing they had already spent 14 weeks in prison.

However, the public transport company involved rejected any offers saying they had to pay for their crime. District Judge Liew Thiam Leng told the court that the two men had broken into a protected place on three occasions after first scoping out the scene, which is a serious breach of security.

“The offenses are quite well-planned and pre-meditated.”

He added that their actions had also caused a disruption to public transport as the spray-painted train had to be taken out of action.

The families employed a Singapore-based German lawyer to act on behalf of the two men. Dr Ruediger Ackermann told the media before the court hearing that he was satisfied that due process had been followed in the matter.

“If you come to a foreign country, you have to respect the laws.”

While Ackermann does not condone corporal punishment in the form of caning, he cannot criticize the use in a foreign country.

Apparently the start of the two men’s sentence is to be backdated to November 22, so their pre-trial detention will be part of time served. It was not mentioned when the caning would actually take place.

Ackerman told the German media on Thursday that the men may discuss the possibility of an appeal, but he thought it was unlikely that they would actually pursue one.

Ironically caning as a punishment in Singapore dates back to British colonial rule. It apparently involves being flogged with a rattan stick, often leaving permanent scars.

In other German related news, the Inquisitr reported that a group of German historians are hoping to find the Nazi-looted panels of the iconic “Amber Room” in the tunnels under the city of Wuppertal.

[Image: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Michael Macedonio]

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