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A 22-year-old woman in Singapore was sentenced on Oct. 2 to five weeks’ jail for lying to the police that she was raped by her then-boyfriend, The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao, Shin Min Daily News and Today reported.The accused, Zhang Lutian, a Chinese national, pleaded guilty to one count of providing false information to a public servant.The case against her allegedly began as a result of her being furious about a disagreement with a man she was dating at the time, according to media sources. The woman's then-boyfriend's nationality and age were not revealed.She only officially withdrew the accusation and others she made slightly a month after the incident. Zhang called the police at 12:38am on Mar. 10, 2022, following a quarrel.The woman claimed she was injured and her then-boyfriend prevented her from leaving.She and her partner met on the WeChat messaging application in April 2021 as they were interested in the same game. A month later, they met and went for meals.In August 2021, they began a relationship and cohabited when she moved into his place.Some seven months into their relationship, on Mar. 9, 2022, the couple argued.The quarrel went past midnight.Zhang called the police in the early hours of the morning and claimed that her ex-boyfriend had hurt her, and she was bleeding. The woman proceeded to inform two police officers who arrived at the residence that the man had sexually assaulted her.Given the serious allegation, the police dispatched 17 more personnel to the scene, including five investigation officers and four forensic officers. Zhang went on to repeat her rape allegation twice.She did so when her statement was recorded at the Police Cantonment Complex on that same morning at 6:30am, and when she met the medical officer during her medical examination that day.Zhang's claims were that her partner had raped her thrice during their relationship, and he had also physically abused her.The authorities detained Zhang's ex-boyfriend's passport, took his cellphones, and subjected him to a 44-minute video questioning.According to ST and Today, the prosecutor argued in court that Zhang's action was to get the other party in trouble, and it resulted in a waste of public resources.A doctor, a nurse, a crew to clean up after a medical examination, and five forensic officers were activated to do a forensic screening on the woman's boyfriend’s mobile phones. Zhang withdrew her false information a month and 10 days later on Apr. 20, 2022.Zhang cried in court and tried to read her mitigation plea in English but failed, Today reported.A court interpreter read her statement on her behalf.Zhang said she suffered from severe depression and anxiety, and the incident happened just a few weeks after she turned 21. She claimed that her awareness of the seriousness of the offence “was still immature”, according to ST.She added that her offence was committed in the heat of the moment with no premeditation and had caused little harm to public interest, aside from causing inconvenience for the victim.She also claimed that she was scheduled to have her official statement recorded only a month later but had tried to withdraw her case roughly a week after making the accusations.
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