A Singapore judge has allowed 18-year-old French student Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien to leave the country to travel to Manila from May 2 to May 25 for an internship that his lawyer said is required for graduation. He must remain contactable and post a S$5,000 (about $3,700) bond. The prosecution did not object, according to the South China Morning Post.
Maximilien, who had earlier been released on S$5,000 (about $3,700) bail, was formally charged on April 24 with mischief and public nuisance. Court documents detailing the charges were released on April 27, and his next court appearance, initially set for May 22, has been postponed to May 29.
An iJooz orange juice vending machine
The alleged incident occurred on March 12 at a shopping center. According to the charges, Maximilien licked a straw from an iJooz orange juice vending machine and returned it to the dispenser. He filmed the act, edited the clip on Snapchat, and uploaded it to his Instagram story with a caption stating the city was not safe. The video later went viral.
Maximilien faces charges for vandalism, public nuisance, and mischief, with formal counts brought so far on the latter two. Authorities have also noted the potential for financial harm to the machine operator as a result of the incident and subsequent response measures.
The potential penalties are significant. The public nuisance charge carries up to three months in prison or a fine of up to S$2,000 (about $1,480), or both. The mischief charge is punishable by up to two years in prison or a substantial fine, or both. Taken together, the combined offenses could lead to a prison sentence of over two years and three months, as well as fines totaling thousands of dollars.
In a widely noted 1994 case, an American youth, Michael Fay, was sentenced to six strokes of a cane for vandalism by a Singaporean court. Singapore also maintains stringent rules on other aspects of conduct. Vaping is illegal, with possession of an e-cigarette carrying a fine of 700 Singapore dollars (about $518), and possessing even small amounts of marijuana or synthetic drugs can lead to long-term imprisonment and mandatory caning, while drug trafficking is punishable by death.
The vending machine operator at the center of the case, iJooz, filed a police report after seeing the viral video and took sanitation measures in response. The company replaced all 500 straws in the dispenser and conducted additional checks and inspections. It said it is also installing upgraded machines with hygienic features, according to BBC News.