- Brick, 26, is an Indonesian man who is set to be caned nine times for trying to illegally enter Singapore.
- This was his fifth time trying to sneak into the country, local media reported, citing authorities.
- Caning is a judicial punishment in Singapore that can be given to male offenders who are below 50.
A 26-year-old Indonesian man was sentenced to 18 months in prison and nine strokes of the cane in Singapore for illegally entering the island nation by swimming, local media reported.
Singaporean outlet Channel News Asia identified the man by only one name — Brick — and reported that he approached Singapore on a small boat called a sampan in June 2023.
The boat set off from Batam, an Indonesian island about eight miles south of Singapore, and Brick later jumped into the water and swam to shore, CNA reported, citing details given during his sentencing.
This was Brick's fifth illegal entry into Singapore since 2017, with his previous offenses landing him a total of 25 strokes of the cane and 50 months in prison, per CNA. Given his latest sentence, the total rises to 34 cane strokes and 68 months in prison.
Local immigration authorities arrested Brick in March and said in court that he didn't have travel documents to show that he entered the country legally, per CNA. That means he spent about nine months living illegally in Singapore.
In court, Brick asked in Indonesian for leniency because he was "working for my family and my mother currently is ill," according to the outlet.
But a presiding judge said Brick's repeated offenses required a tougher sentence, CNA reported.
The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority of Singapore, which prosecuted Brick's case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider. The Indonesian Embassy in Singapore also did not immediately respond to a similar request.
Judicial caning is a form of corporal punishment in Singapore that can be given to criminal offenders who are male and under the age of 50. The penalty is often paired with a prison sentence and carried out by trained staff with a special rattan cane about four feet long.
Staff are trained to strike the bare buttocks of the offender, and the lashes are said to be extremely painful and sometimes leave scars. An offender can receive a maximum of 24 strokes per trial.
The practice of caning in Singapore has been controversial, drawing international attention in 1994 when 19-year-old US citizen Michael Fay was given six strokes of the cane for vandalism. Fay later said local police coerced him into a confession that he spray-painted cars, a claim that the Singapore government has denied.
Defenders of caning say it acts both as a deterrent and a means to make offenders think twice before repeating their crimes. In 2022, Singapore's then-President Halimah Yaacob said caning regulations should be reviewed because rapists in severe cases were being spared the rod by being older than 50.
Singapore also upholds a strict death penalty for those found trafficking controlled substances such as marijuana or meth.