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SINGAPORE – The doctor whose boyfriend leaked the confidential information of 14,200 people carrying the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) online will be tried on May 29 on drug charges.
Ler Teck Siang, 37, is challenging a charge of trafficking and administering methamphetamine, as well as another charge of possession of a drug utensil.
A third drug-related charge – the lack of provision of a urine sample to the authorities – was dismissed.
He allegedly committed the offenses while he was on trial for other criminal acts, including not cheating and giving false information to an official.
He was later convicted and sentenced to two years in prison last November for already indicting his American boyfriend and forging his blood test results so that he could continue to work in Singapore. .
The drug charges yesterday revealed that on the evening of February 26, Ler would have administered methamphetamine – a controlled drug – to a Sim Eng Chee in a room at the Swissotel the Stamford Hotel.
A few days later, on March 2, in the lobby of the Conrad Centennial Hotel, Ler would have in his possession a syringe intended for the administration of a controlled drug.
In the evening of the same day, he allegedly failed to provide a urine sample to an agent of the Central Drugs Bureau.
Under the Official Secrets Act, Ler is still facing charges for failing to take reasonable steps with respect to confidential information about HIV-positive patients.
For the trafficking and administration of the controlled drug, Ler could be sentenced to imprisonment ranging from five to twenty years, with caning.
Background of the case
– Ler, a registered general practitioner, was found in the news earlier this week when his boyfriend, Mikhy K Farrera Brochez, illegally published online confidential data from 14,200 HIV-positive people and more than 2,000 others identified by the search for contacts. . These records date back to 1985, the most recent being from January 2013.
– Ler was head of the National Health Unit of the Ministry of Health and had access to the HIV registry. He resigned in January 2014.
– Broche, who is now 33 years old, lived in Singapore with a work permit between January 2008 and June 2016.
– In 2008, Ler deceived the authorities by submitting his own blood sample so that Brochez, HIV-positive, could obtain a work permit.
– In March 2017, Brochez, a former polytechnic lecturer in Singapore, was convicted of numerous fraud and drug offenses and sentenced to 28 months in prison.
– Brochez's fraud offenses involved the Ministry of Manpower, which he lied about his HIV status in order to obtain and keep his employment card, to provide false information to police officers during a criminal investigation and use fake degree certificates in their job applications.
– He was expelled from Singapore last May after serving his sentence.
– Last December, Brochez was charged in the United States with attempting to encroach on his mother's home.
– Last year, after the expulsion of Brochez, the ministry was informed that it still had some of the archives and that the information "did not appear to have been disclosed publicly".
– The Ministry of Health made a police report and informed the people concerned.
– The Ministry of Health said that in early May 2016, it had already filed a police report after receiving information that Brochez was in possession of confidential information that appeared to come from his registry of HIV.
– The properties of Ler and Bronchez were searched and all relevant documents found were seized and secured by the police.
– On 22 January this year, the Ministry of Health was informed that more information from the register may be in Broche's possession and that he had disclosed the information online. He began contacting all those affected on January 26th. – TODAY & # 39; HUI
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