19-year-old French man convicted of licking straw in Singapore

The case happened in March this year, when the young man, identified as Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, published a video on social media, where he appears licking a straw before putting it back into the dispenser of an automatic juice machine, in a shopping mall in Singapore.

Didier Maximilien, who was risking up to three months in prison, admitted the facts and was fined for violating public order.

According to The Straits Times newspaper, the video quickly became viral, causing a scandal in the city-state known for its intransigence in the face of infractions of this type.

When reading the sentence, Judge Kelly Ho stated that, taking into account "the age and nature of the infraction", alternative measures such as community work would not be applied.

The prosecutors agreed, considering that it was a low-serious infraction, with no evidence of direct harm.

Wearing a dark suit and white shirt, the student left the court accompanied by his parents, refusing to speak to journalists. The lawyer, Kalidass Murugaiyan, had asked for a fine and declared that the young man "deeply regrets" what happened.

With a student visa in Singapore, the young man must return to France in September to continue his studies. In April, the court authorized his temporary departure for an internship in Manila, in the Philippines.

The court highlighted that the Frenchman knew he could cause "unjustified loss or damage" to the company iJooz, which had to replace 500 straws in the machine.

Last year, a 26-year-old Australian man was sentenced in Singapore to nine days in prison, expelled and banned from re-entering the city for grabbing singer Ariana Grande during the Asian premiere of the film 'Wicked: For Good'.