Two Singaporean women were given a 12-month conditional warning on Friday (6 July) for posting inflammatory comments on social media as well as criminal trespass after they repeatedly prayed inside a mall despite being advised not to.

The women, both 28, were investigated by the police in October last year, for posting remarks on Facebook that were “prejudicial to the maintenance of racial and religious harmony in Singapore”, said the police on Friday.

Yahoo News Singapore understands that the women are twin sisters.

The remarks came after the women prayed in a fire escape stairwell at Alexandra Central Mall on two separate occasions on 23 and 24 October last year.

On the first occasion, they were advised by security personnel – who waited until after the duo had completed their prayers – that the stairwell was to be kept unobstructed for fire safety reasons and that they could pray in a prayer room in the vicinity. But the duo returned the following day to the same location to pray.

When advised again by a security officer to use a designated prayer room, one of the women demanded to meet the security supervisor and subsequently accused the supervisor of being racist by disallowing them to pray at the stairwell.

Following both incidents, the duo had alleged that “members of one race looked down on members of another race” on Facebook, said the police.

Yahoo News Singapore understands that a police report was made on 25 October, a day after the second incident.

After careful consideration of the circumstances of the case and in consultation with the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the women were given a 12-month conditional warning for their offences.

However, these offences will be resurfaced for reconsideration for prosecution if they were to re-offend within this period.

“The allegations the two women made were serious, but baseless. Such allegations can over time affect our racial and religious harmony,” added the police.

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