SINGAPORE: Rapper Subhas Nair on Wednesday (Feb 5) began his six-week jail term for attempting to promote ill will among racial and religious groups through online posts after a High Court dismissed his appeals.
The 32-year-old Singaporean, whose full name is Subhas Govin Prabhakar Nair, appealed against his conviction and sentence before Justice Hoo Sheau Peng over two days starting last year.
Dressed in a plain black shirt, Nair arrived at the High Court accompanied by his sister Preeti Nair on Wednesday.
In a brief oral decision, Justice Hoo said she agreed with the lower court's decision on conviction and sentence, adding that the six-week jail term was "not disproportionate or crushing".
Nair was found guilty of four charges by a district court in 2023 after a trial. The charges were over racially-charged statements he made between July 2019 and March 2021.
They relate to a YouTube video where he and Preeti performed a song containing the lyrics: "Chinese people always out here f***ing it up".
While Nair was given a two-year conditional warning by the police for the video, he reoffended by posting comments on social media.
He commented on a viral video by two Christians who linked the gay pride movement to Satan, and wrote: "If two Malay Muslims made a video promoting Islam and saying the kinds of hateful things these Chinese Christians said, ISD (Internal Security Department) would have been at the door before they even hit 'upload'."
In another incident, Nair made an Instagram post referring to a media interview of Chan Jia Xing, who was given a conditional warning for a reduced charge of consorting with a person who had a weapon. Chan was one of seven who were originally charged with murdering a man at Orchard Towers.
Nair wrote that "calling out racism and Chinese privilege" equalled a two-year conditional warning and "smear campaign in the media", while "actually conspiring to murder an Indian man" equalled half the sentence and a question of "you're having a baby soon right? Boy or girl" from the media.
Nair later performed a stage play where he displayed a hand-drawn replica of the comments related to Chan Jia Xing.&nb...