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SINGAPORE: Activist Kokila Annamalai was charged on Thursday (Apr 23) with failing to comply with a correction direction issued to her<\/a> in 2024 under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA).<\/p>\n Annamalai, whose full name was listed as Annamalai Kokila Parvathi in court documents, is believed to be the second person charged under POFMA since it became law in 2019. The first, Jay Ish’haq Rajoo, was charged in March over false statements he made on TikTok<\/a>.<\/p>\n Annamalai, a 37-year-old Singaporean, is accused of failing to comply with a correction direction issued to her on Oct 5, 2024, over posts she made a few days earlier on social media.<\/p>\n The posts were about a drug trafficker on death row named Mohammad Azwan Bohari and he and his family’s experience with his scheduled execution dates.<\/p>\n The authorities later said that Annamalai’s posts falsely stated that “the government schedules and stays executions arbitrarily without regard for due legal process”, and that “the state does not bear the legal burden of providing a drug trafficking charge against the accused person”.<\/p>\n Annamalai was issued a correction direction on Oct 5, 2024, to carry correction notices on her posts. She did not comply. Instead, on Oct 22, 2024, she made a post on Facebook saying she defied the POFMA correction direction and stood by “everything” she said in the earlier posts.<\/p>\n Annamalai further alleged that “there are no false facts” in the posts.<\/p>\n She was joined by several supporters at the State Courts on Wednesday, but made no indication of how she would plead.<\/p>\n She will return to court for a pre-trial conference in May.<\/p>\n Annamalai was previously charged in a separate case, along with two other women, for organising a pro-Palestinian procession to the Istana.<\/p>\n The trio claimed trial and were acquitted in October 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those convicted of failing to comply with a POFMA order can be jailed for up to 12 months, fined up to S$20,000 (US$15,700), or both.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n