{"id":54444,"date":"2026-05-22T17:11:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T09:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=54444"},"modified":"2026-05-22T17:11:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T09:11:38","slug":"jail-for-man-who-verbally-abused-boy-wearing-jewish-skullcap-and-assaulted-senior-citizen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=54444","title":{"rendered":"Jail for man who verbally abused boy wearing Jewish skullcap and assaulted senior citizen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013<!-- --> A man jailed in 2024 after telling an Israeli that he would kill him went on to verbally abuse <!-- -->a 14-year-old boy who was wearing a Jewish skullcap <!-- -->in March 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Mohammad Arif Ismail, 40, was sentenced to 20 weeks\u2019 jail <!-- -->on May 21<!-- --> after pleading guilty to three charges involving separate incidents \u2013 one count each of uttering words to <!-- -->wound the racial feelings of another person<!-- -->, assaulting an elderly man, and theft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Arif, a Singaporean, has been in and out of jail for crimes such as using criminal force on another person and other counts of theft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Court documents stated that in May 2024, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/jail-for-man-who-used-words-to-deliberately-wound-racial-feelings-of-jewish-man?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">he pleaded guilty to uttering words to a 34-year-old Israeli man<\/span><\/a> with the deliberate intention of wounding <!-- -->the latter\u2019s religious feelings<!-- -->.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Deputy Public Prosecutor Khong Zi-Wei told the court that Arif was sentenced to three weeks\u2019 jail for this offence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Following his release, Arif<!-- --> <!-- -->was travelling on bus service 858 on March 20,<!-- --> <!-- -->2026,<!-- --> <!-- -->when he saw the 14-year-old boy wearing a <!-- -->kippah,<!-- --> a skullcap traditionally worn by men of the Jewish faith. Arif turned towards the teenager, abused him with vulgar language and flashed a lewd hand gesture at him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The DPP added: \u201cThe accused had intentionally directed the offensive words and gesture at the victim, completely unprovoked, and did so in a manner calculated to injure (him) in the light of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Another of Arif\u2019s charges that he admitted to on May 21 involved his assault of a 79-year-old stranger at a taxi stand in Commonwealth Avenue in October 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Arif went up to the man and extended his hand, gesturing for a handshake. However, the senior citizen did not reciprocate as he did not know the younger man.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Arif suddenly punched the retiree\u2019s left temple and rained blows on his chest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In an attempt to protect himself, the victim pushed Arif, causing him to fall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">After getting back on his feet, Arif kicked the victim, who fell and wounded his right elbow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Arif was walking away when a nearby policewoman, who was then on patrol, and her partner stopped him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He also stole two bottles of liquor worth more than $100 in total from a supermarket in Tanglin Road on Nov 7, 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On May 21, Arif, who was not represented by a lawyer, pleaded for leniency,<!-- --> <!-- -->telling the court that he will not re-offend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/jail-for-man-who-verbally-abused-boy-wearing-jewish-skullcap-and-assaulted-senior-citizen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013 A man jailed in 2024 after telling an Israeli that he would kill him went on to verbally abuse a 14-year-old boy who&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}