Swiss train vandal flies home
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Nov 16, 2010
SINGAPORE - A SWISS expatriate who was jailed and caned for spray-painting a Singapore metro train has flown home after serving his sentence, the Swiss embassy said on Tuesday.
Oliver Fricker, a 32-year-old software consultant, was released from Changi Prison on Monday and quickly took a flight back to Switzerland, the embassy's deputy head of mission Peter Zimmerli told AFP.
Fricker was jailed in June for vandalism and trespass, and a high court judge in August extended his sentence from five to seven months following appeals from state prosecutors who felt the original jail term was lenient.
He was also ordered to be whipped three times with a wooden cane, a form of punishment applicable to vandalism and other offences including rape.
Prosecutors said Fricker broke into a train depot in May and spray-painted two carriages together with a 29-year-old Briton, Lloyd Dane Alexander, who is still wanted in Singapore after fleeing the city-state.
The pair spray-painted the words 'McKoy' and 'Banos' - the signatures of two train vandals whose elaborate works are celebrated in YouTube videos and websites that regard graffiti as an art form. -- AFP
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I don't care if he vandalises SG trains...
He can do for all I care.But if he vandalise the trains of the [SFR Swiss Federal Railways | SBB Schweizerische Bundesbahnen | CFF Chemins de fer fédéraux suisses | FFS Ferrovie federali svizzere], I'm gonna curse him till the cows come home.
Those trains in Switzerland (and Europe for that matter), are good quality and RUN ON TIME, not like the shyt we have in SG. -
Originally posted by Fryderyk HPH:
I don't care if he vandalises SG trains...
He can do for all I care.But if he vandalise the trains of the [SFR Swiss Federal Railways | SBB Schweizerische Bundesbahnen | CFF Chemins de fer fédéraux suisses | FFS Ferrovie federali svizzere], I'm gonna curse him till the cows come home.
Those trains in Switzerland (and Europe for that matter), are good quality and RUN ON TIME, not like the shyt we have in SG.yup, like those swiss trains.
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Originally posted by Clivebenss:
yup, like those swiss trains.
My personal fav is actually the tilting train (ICN) operated by the SBB...
And also the ÖBB Railjet, which operate into Zurich HB from various parts in Austria.
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SMRT vandal arrested in Switzerland
By Alicia Wong – November 16th, 2010Swiss national Oliver Fricker, who flew home to Switzerland after he was released from Changi Prison, was arrested by Swiss police after he landed at Zurich Airport.
According to a Straits Times report, a Swiss police spokesman said Fricker is suspected of having vandalised several trains in Switzerland between 2002 and this year, causing damage of about 200,000 Swiss francs ($260,000).
He added that the vandalism on the Swiss trains had some similarities to that on the SMRT train which Fricker and an accomplice spray-painted in May.
The report added that the SMRT train was scrawled with the words ‘McKoy Banos’ – the signature tag of two ‘graffiti artists’ believed to have spray-painted trains around the world.
“We have registered this ‘McKoy’ tag several times on Swiss trains. We assume he was spray-painting with others. But we do not know those suspects,” said the spokesman.
The Swiss police had been in contact with the Singapore authorities, he added.
The Swiss police found that Fricker might be the man responsible for the spate of train vandalism cases only after he was arrested here in May.
Fricker is now being held in a prison in Zug and a judge is expected to decide if he should be released pending trial.
Under Swiss law, the former software consultant faces between one and five years in jail for vandalism.
The 32-year-old was released from prison on Monday morning after he completed less than five months of his seven months jail.
He received one-third remission for good behaviour. He had also been sentenced to three strokes of the cane for trespassing and vandalising an SMRT train in May.
Fricker and an alleged accomplice, Briton Dane Alexander Lloyd, 29, had cut a hole in the Changi depot fence, and entered to spray-paint the words “McKoy Banos” on a train. Lloyd is believed to have fled to Hong Kong.
According to ST, Fricker left the Changi Prison Complex at 8 am on Monday and was taken to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority building for repatriation procedures.
Fricker had been living in Singapore for the past 18 months, before his arrest. He was caught two days before he was to return to Switzerland.
The Swiss embassy told ST that a representative had visited Fricker occasionally while he was imprisoned and gave him consular assistance.
A spokesman for Switzerland-based company Comit, where Fricker worked, said the IT consultant remains contracted, without further elaboration.
- Yahoo! Singapore
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oh nose
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prison hopping.
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Anyway, the world's fastest train is found in China.
Good luck to him..
