iJooz straw licking case gets picked up by international news outlets, netizens voice support for S’pore’s tough stance
Major international news sites have picked up the case of an 18-year-old student who was charged with mischief for allegedly licking a straw from an iJooz machine before returning it to the dispenser.
Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, a French national, is accused of committing the act at Goldhill Centre in Novena on or around March 12. A video of him licking the straw, which he allegedly uploaded to Instagram, quickly went viral.
Apart from mischief, Maximilien, a student from ESSEC Business School, was also charged with being a public nuisance on April 24.
It was previously reported that iJooz had to replace all 500 straws in the dispenser after the alleged incident.
‘He deserves it’
The peculiar news was picked up by international news sites such as BBC News and CNN, with netizens across the world praising Singapore’s tough stance and strict enforcement.
A video posted by BBC News about the incident garnered over 3.2 million views, 115,000 likes, and almost 5,044 comments across Instagram and TikTok. Similarly, American news outlet CNN’s coverage of the case gained over one million views, 26,700 likes, 1,790 comments.
“He deserves it. Foreigners should respect the locals and the country they’re visiting,” one Instagram user wrote under BBC’s post. Some netizens also slammed Maximilien’s actions, pointing out that it could spread infectious diseases and bacteria.
Netizens who claimed they were from countries such as Thailand and Nigeria also expressed wishes for their countries to incorporate similar punishments for cases of mischief.
Some, however, claimed the two years’ jail sentence for mischief was too severe.
Others put a lighthearted spin on the incident with straw-related puns. “Guess that was the last straw,” one Instagram user said, while another joked: “That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Maximilien’s case will be mentioned again in court on May 22. For committing mischief, he faces up to two years’ jail, a fine, or both.
The punishment for being a public nuisance is a jail term of up to three months, a fine of up to $2,000, or both.
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