Indian-origin rapper Subhas Nair began serving his six-week jail sentence on Wednesday for attempting to stir racial and religious tensions through online posts in multi-ethnic Singapore. 

The 32-year-old Singaporean, whose full name is Subhas Govin Prabhakar Nair, had appealed his conviction and sentence before Justice Hoo Sheau Peng over two days last year. However, the High Court upheld the lower court’s decision, dismissing his appeals, as reported by Channel News Asia.

Nair had been found guilty of four charges in 2023 after a district court trial. The charges stemmed from racially charged statements he made between July 2019 and March 2021, including a YouTube video in which he and his sister, Preeti Nair, performed a song with racist lyrics. Although Nair was initially given a two-year conditional warning for the video by the police, he reoffended by making further racial comments on social media.

He wrote that calling out "racism and Chinese privilege" led to a two-year conditional warning and a media smear campaign, while "actually conspiring to murder an Indian man" received only half that sentence. He also referenced a media question about whether he was expecting a boy or girl while performing a stage play featuring a hand-drawn replica of the comments related to Chan Jia Xing.

The District Judge sentenced Nair to the six-week jail term proposed by the prosecution in September 2023, which led to the current appeal. Justice Hoo ruled that the sentence was "not disproportionate or crushing." Under the law, Nair could have faced up to three years in jail, a fine, or both for attempting to promote hostility between racial or religious groups.

PTI