Two charged with disturbing public peace

Of all places, two men chose to exchange blows outside the State Courts building at Havelock Square.

Vasily Chuply, 24 and Alexander Kalinin, 37, both Singaporeans, were charged in court yesterday, each with one count of disturbing the public peace.

They allegedly punched each other there at around 3.15pm on Feb 13.

Mr Jeremy Long, 27, a photojournalist with The New Paper, saw the scuffle and captured the incident on his camera.

It took about 10 security personnel and police officers almost 10 minutes to calm the pair down and send them on their way. The police took down their particulars.

The New Paper reported that one of the parties later filed a magistrate's complaint about the incident.

In court yesterday, the men were sitting in the gallery at opposite ends of the courtroom, occasionally glancing at each other.

Not a word was uttered between them and they appeared calm as they stood in the dock before District Judge Ronald Gwee.

Chuply's lawyer is Mr Chia Boon Teck while Kalinin, who works in finance, is represented by Mr Amarjit Singh. The two men will be back in court on June 5.

If convicted of disturbing the public peace, they can each be jailed for up to a year and fined up to $5,000.