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Women's Charter (Chapter 353)
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Persons living on or trading in prostitution
146. —(1) Any person who knowingly lives wholly or in part on the
earnings of the prostitution of another person shall be guilty of an
offence and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term
not exceeding 5 years and shall also be liable to a fine not exceeding
$10,000.
(2) Any male person who is convicted of a second or subsequent offence
under this section shall, in addition to any term of imprisonment
imposed in respect of such offence, be liable to caning.
(3) Where any person is proved to live with or be habitually in the
company of any prostitute or is proved to have exercised control,
direction or influence over the movements of any prostitute in such a
manner as to show that the person is aiding, abetting or compelling
her prostitution with any other person or generally, the person shall,
in the absence of proof to the contrary, be deemed to be knowingly
living on the earnings of prostitution.
Suppression of places of assignation
147. —(1) Any person who keeps, manages or assists in the management
of a place of assignation shall be guilty of an offence and shall be
liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $3,000 or to imprisonment
for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both and, in the case of a
second or subsequent conviction, to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or to both.
(2) Any person who keeps, manages or assists in the management of a
club or a place of public resort which is used as a place of
assignation shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on
conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a
term not exceeding 5 years or to both and, in the case of a second or
subsequent conviction, to a fine not exceeding $15,000 or to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or to both.
Suppression of brothels
148. —(1) Any person who keeps, manages or assists in the management
of a brothel shall be guilty of an offence under this section.
(2) Any person who is the tenant, lessee, occupier or person in charge
of any place which is used as a brothel shall, unless he proves that
he has no knowledge that the place is used as a brothel, be guilty of
an offence under this section.
(3) Any person who being the tenant, lessee, occupier or person in
charge of any place lets such place or any part thereof shall
notwithstanding such letting be guilty of an offence under subsection
(2) if the place or any part thereof is used as a brothel, unless he
proves that he has no knowledge that the place or any part thereof is
used as a brothel.
(4) Any person who being the owner of any place or the agent of that
owner lets the same or any part thereof with the knowledge that the
place or some part thereof is to be used as a brothel or is wilfully a
party to the continued use of the place or any part thereof as a
brothel shall, notwithstanding such letting, be guilty of an offence
under this section.
(5) Any person who is guilty of an offence under this section shall be
liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $3,000 or to imprisonment
for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both and, in the case of a
second or subsequent conviction, to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or to both.
(6) In any proceedings under this Part, any evidence given by any
police officer not below the rank of sergeant that any place has been
used as a brothel or a place of assignation shall, until the contrary
is proved, be deemed to be sufficient evidence of the fact.
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Notice to owner and occupier
149. —(1) Where the Director has reason to believe that a place is
being used as a brothel or as a place of assignation, he may serve or
cause to be served a notice in the prescribed form on the owner of the
place, as well as the occupier thereof.
(2) If the owner or occupier is not otherwise known, service shall be
made on the person inscribed in the books kept under any written law
for the time being in force as the owner or occupier of the place; and
if the name of the owner or occupier is not inscribed in those books
or if the name of the owner or occupier cannot by the exercise of due
diligence be found, then the notice may be served by affixing it to
the principal outer door or upon the outside of any door or window or
any conspicuous part of the place.
(3) Every occupier receiving a notice under this section shall
forthwith inform the owner or the person from whom he rents the place
of the fact of receipt of the notice who shall in like manner inform
the owner or the person from whom he rents the place and so on till
the notice is brought to the knowledge of the owner, each tenant being
responsible for bringing the notice to the knowledge of his immediate
lessor.
(4) Any occupier who refuses or omits to inform the owner or the
person from whom he rents the premises that a notice under this
section has been received shall be liable to prosecution under section
225c of the Penal Code (Cap. 224).
(5) If, in proceedings under this Part, it is proved that the notice
under subsection (1) has been served on the owner or occupier of a
place, it shall be presumed that the place is so kept, managed or used
to the knowledge or with the permission of the owner or occupier of
the place.
Determination of tenancy of places on conviction for permitting use as
brothel, etc.
150. —(1) Upon the conviction of the occupier of any place for any
offence under section 147 or 148 in respect of the place, the owner of
the place shall within one month require the person so convicted to
deliver up possession of the place to the owner, and in the event of
the person so convicted failing within one month of being so required
to deliver up possession as aforesaid, the owner of the place shall be
entitled to determine the lease or contract of tenancy but without
prejudice to the rights or remedies of any party to the lease or
contract accrued before the date of such determination.
(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of the Control of Rent Act (Cap.
5
, where the owner of any place has determined the lease or
contract of tenancy in accordance with subsection (1) and the occupier
has not delivered up possession of the place after such determination,
a Magistrate's Court may, on the application of the owner, make a
summary order for the delivery of possession of the place to the
owner.
(3) If the occupier disobeys any order made by a Magistrate's Court
under subsection (2), he shall be liable to the penalty prescribed in
that behalf in section 188 of the Penal Code (Cap. 224).
This above law is mainly the reason why R21 is never considered for
implementation for home usage buy only for educational institute and
libraries as the place as the women charter law forbid the use of
these erotic videos to start any brothel in private place like homes,
private owned areas etc. These DVD movies or videos that contains
sexual content will also be use by some individual to attract customer
whom are looking for places to release themselves. These people are
considered to have help to manage the brothel business as stated in
the women's charter law. The only thing that cause this woman's
Charter law to be overrided when video shops in Singapore or web shops
that sell wide ranges of items inclusive of DVD movie videos in R
format in the U.S pay for full business license to Singapore. Brothel
based in Singapore could start brothel business legally as well as
using phones etc as they pay up for special license meant to sell tits
and ass which could cost approx SGD75000 to SGD90000. (Individual will
have to privately and personally approach the authorites for request
about information for this special license). Private homes and houses
that are registered under the name of the head of family will usually
have big problem in handling this as the family members bought any
movies that contain erotic content which in the end made the woman's
charter suspect that buying this could be one of the clues that the
home that the owners registered his name was suspected of setting up
of brothels which could lend the person to a fine of SGD10000 or 5
years jail(same for lending any erotic movies to a friend). SGD15000
or a 5 years jail for people whom set up business in registered
companies list like holiday resort or clubs and the lending of these
erotic movies to any friend in a registered company. Erotic or
Violence movie in bootleg or pirated version printed in Malaysia could
be brought in to Singapore in amounts of more than 10 pieces after
someone has informed the customs about this as his friend is suspected
of some illegal plays or something from some facial expression which
proves that he is hiding something from authority. This is to say that
since the R21 is not going to start in Singapore, they allow the
pirated copies to be brought into Singapore where customs in Singapore
allow people to bring in these illegal copies as well as the web shops
based in the U.S like Amazon.com, DVDempire, Videoflicks etc etc. They
are just treating both copies as illegimate copies based on woman's
charter law. Try to bring in pirated copy of normal PG code 1 copy of
movies from Malaysia andsee what will happen to you. You will be in
hot soup if the authorities want to nab anyone whom try to smuggle in
any of these normal PG pirated DVD or VCD movies.
