An Australian man was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for killing a Singaporean man and injuring his wife by throwing a wine bottle at a party of Malay Muslims in August 2019 in a case that demonstrated “religious hostility”.
A Singapore court handed down the sentence to Andrew Gosling on Friday.
Gosling, then 49, had gone down to the party being held two floors below his apartment and threw the empty bottle that hit 73-year-old Nasiari Sunee on the head.
The bottle ricocheted and struck his wife on the shoulder.
Nasiari, who was a delivery driver, suffered severe head injuries and died the next morning.
Gosling also reportedly shouted racial slurs at the gathering after throwing the bottle.
He pleaded guilty to the two charges of causing death and injury in February even as the prosecution argued that he had demonstrated an act of “religious hostility”.
While sentencing Gosling, Judge Victor Yeo Khee Eng said the Australian displayed a “high degree of rashness” and disregarded the group’s safety by throwing the bottle.
“I agree with the prosecution that the present offence involves an element of demonstration of religious hostility towards Muslims,” he said.
“Such offences could seriously undermine Singapore’s racial and religious harmony and must not be tolerated and must be firmly dealt with.”
According to a 2020 census, 16 per cent of Singapore’s multiracial 5.5 million population is Muslim.
The country has a predominantly ethnic Chinese population with sizeable Malay and Indian minorities.
Gosling had told investigators that he was “angry and upset” over Islamic militant attacks in Bali in 2002 and Melbourne in 2018 in which many Australians had died.
He said he wanted to “startle” the group after identifying them as Muslims.
His lawyers cited a psychiatric report and claimed alcohol may have impaired his judgement.
While they argued his act was unlikely to be religiously motivated, the prosecution said they had a “wider impact of causing unease in Singapore, especially amongst the broader Muslim population”.
Gosling has been sentenced to four years in jail for causing Mr Nasiari’s death and 18 months for causing injury to his wife.
The sentences will run consecutively from the day he surrendered in 2019.
Gosling has said that he is “remorseful” and is likely to appeal the judgment.
Additional reporting by agencies
