SINGAPORE: A 33-year-old woman was charged on Thursday (Aug 29) with attempting to grab the service revolver of an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer at Woodlands Checkpoint.
Xu Ting was handed one count of attempting to be in unlawful possession of an arm under the Arms Offences Act.
She was charged in the Court Crime Registry Chambers, which is not open to public. Past cases where chargings occurred in these chambers include instances where an accused person was injured or hospitalised.
The Chinese national is accused of reaching out to grab a service revolver that was secured on a holster attached to the utility belt of a female ICA officer.
This allegedly occurred at about 3.45pm on Tuesday at Woodlands Checkpoint.
The police said in an earlier statement that they received a call for help that day and preliminary investigations showed that Xu had been denied entry into Malaysia.
When she arrived at Woodlands Checkpoint, she was referred to the ICA duty office for secondary checks.
While being interviewed, she allegedly reached for the officer’s revolver, and was immediately placed under arrest, the police said.
Xu’s case will be mentioned again on Sep 12.
If convicted of attempting to be in unlawful possession of arms, she could be jailed between five and 10 years.
She cannot be caned as she is a woman, but the offence usually carries at least six strokes of the cane.
This is the second case this month of a person being charged over an incident with an officer at Woodlands Checkpoint.
A 37-year-old man was charged on Aug 17 with taking photos and videos without permission at a lane counter at the checkpoint.
