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Two Germans were sentenced to 9 months and 3 strokes of the cane each for breaking into an MRT depot and spray painting a train.
Andreas Van Knorre, 22 and Elton Hinz, 21 were given their charges after both pleaded guilty to trespassing and vandalism. They begged for leniency in court calling their actions a stupid mistake. Andreas called this moment the darkest episode of his entire life and said that he was very angry with himself.
Although the duo expressed their remorse, District Judge dished out the mandatory sentence as well as the lashings for both their crimes. Both men tried fleeing Singapore after their spree and they nearly got away with it too. They had crossed the Causeway into Malaysia and were waiting for a flight out to Australia before they were identified and extradited back into police custody.
Theirs isn’t the first case of vandalism by foreigners in Singapore. Michael Fay, then a teenager was the first high profile incident that brought to light the strict laws that Singapore abides by and the hard stance the law takes on vandals. Swiss expatriate Oliver Fricker was also given a jail sentence and caning for his acts of vandalism in 2010.
[plinker]
