TRS founder Yang Kaiheng to plead guilty to sedition
In a surprise turn of events, Yang Kaiheng, founder of socio-political website, The Real Singapore (TRS), told the court on Wednesday (June 22) he wished to plead guilty to the seven sedition charges he faces.
Yang, 27, had originally claimed trial to allegedly posting inflammatory articles on the TRS website and Facebook page between 2013 and 2015.
An eighth charge of failing to produce documents to the police was stood down.
Over the course of the trial, which was to continue on Wednesday, Yang had claimed his involvement in TRS was for only one month in 2012.
On April 7, he admitted he had lied in court about meeting his wife, Ai Takagi, during the General Election (GE) in May 2011.
He had also claimed he and Takagi had started a Facebook page to petition the removal of new Member of Parliament (MP) Tin Pei Ling after that GE in 2011.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan, who had cross-examined Yang, asked how this could be possible when the couple had not even met then.
Yang and Takagi, 23, an Australian national, were charged in February 2015.
Takagi, who is pregnant, had earlier pleaded guilty to sedition and was jailed 10 months in March, this year.
She began her sentence in late April.
Yang is expected to be back in court on Friday (June 24).
Get the full story in our print edition (June 23).
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