Two Singapore Armed Forces Servicemen will be charged in military court on July 31 in relation to Mediacorp actor and Corporal First Class (NS) Aloysius Pang's death.

Servicemen named

In a press release by the Ministry of Defence published on July 31, the two servicemen have been named as Military Expert 2 (ME2) Ivan Teo, 35, and Third Seargeant (NS) Hubert Wah, 31.

The press release mentioned that Teo will face a total of three charges: One charge for disobedience of general orders, under section 21 of the SAF Act, and two charges for causing death by negligent act under section 304A(b) of the Penal Code.

Wah will face two charges: One charge for causing death by rash act under section 304A(a) of the Penal Code, and one charge for causing death by negligent act under section 304A(b) of the Penal Code.

The military court martial is presided over by a serving State Courts judge.

What happened during the exercise

According to the Committee of Inquiry's (COI) findings on May 6, a gun commander was having difficulty with his Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer gun during an exercise in New Zealand on Jan. 19.

As an armament technician, Pang, 28, was asked to help solve the problem so the gun could resume live firing.

As he couldn’t resolve it by himself, a Regular Military Expert 2 Technician (ME-Tech) was dispatched to join Pang.

According to the investigations, the gun commander shouted the standby order and activated the control to move the gun barrel while Pang was not in a safe position.

Pang had his back facing the barrel of the gun while he worked with Teo to perform maintenance work.

As the gun barrel made contact with Pang, the ME-Tech and GC panicked and acted irrationally.

The ME-Tech attempted to push the barrel with his hands, while the GC went to his control screen to try to stop the movement, instead of activating the two Emergency Stop Buttons within the Howitzer.

The COI has determined that all the following breaches were preventable.

A person convicted for causing death by rash act is liable for imprisonment of up to five years and/ or a fine.

Decision to prosecute

As Pang's death occurred in New Zealand, the Singapore Police Force does not have the jurisdiction to conduct investigations into his death.

Investigations into his death were conducted by the SAF's Special Investigation Branch (SIB).

The Chief Military Prosecutor has decided to prosecute the two SAF servicemen based on the investigation findings of the SIB.

Top image via adapted Jia Hui Wee's illustration and Aloysius Pang's Instagram