TRS trial: Yang Kaiheng pleads guilty to sedition charges

​Founder of sociopolitical site The Real Singapore, Yang Kaiheng, pleaded guilty to six counts under the Sedition Act on Friday (Jun 24).

The 27-year-old admitted he had used the popular site to "promote feelings of ill-will and hostility" and to fan anti-foreigner sentiments in Singapore.

Yang's plea of guilt was entered midway through his trial, after prosecutors poked holes in his testimony, cornering Yang into admitting he had lied under oath.

Seven seditious posts on Yang's blog were targeted at foreign workers from the Philippines, India and China, and contained misplaced allegations against foreigners, including that of a Filipino family disrupting a Thaipusam procession.

The posts also claimed Singapore is "over-populated" with Chinese nationals, and highlighted an alleged incident in which an "uncivilised" Chinese woman had allowed her grandson to "pee into a bottle" on board a train.

Although Yang claims he did not author or edit the posts - his wife Ai Takagi has admitted to doing so - he was heavily involved in running the site and should be held responsible too, prosecutors had argued at his trial.

Takagi, 23, who is currently serving a 10-month jail term, admitted she had falsified or doctored several posts targeted at foreign workers.

At a hearing for Takagi earlier this year, prosecutors charged that the Australian university student had concocted "scandalous, provocative and racy material" in a bid to increase TRS' following and garner "enormous" advertising revenue.

The couple pocketed sums of between A$18,718.85 to A$53,543.94 a month, the prosecution said. From December 2013 to April 2015, the couple pocketed a total of A$474,594.56 in advertising revenue.

Another sedition charge, as well as one charge for failing to produce financial statements relating to the blog's advertising revenue, will be taken into consideration in sentencing Yang.

For sedition, Yang could face up to three years' jail and/or a fine of S$5,000 per charge.