SINGAPORE — The immigration authorities have refuted claims made by States Times Review (STR) founder Alex Tan that they had made a deal with him, to renew his passport if he shut down his Facebook page and website.

On April 4, STR published a Facebook post saying that the Singapore Herald website and the STR Facebook account “will be forced to shut down after the Singapore government refused to renew the passport of its editor Alex Tan”.

It went on to say that the Immigration Checkpoint Authority (ICA) had “demanded that Alex Tan obtain a documentation pass and one-way ticket to Singapore, and renew his passport in person with the authorities.”

“As part of a deal, Alex Tan is shutting down the website,” it added.

In an email to TODAY late on Tuesday (April 9) night, the ICA clarified that Mr Tan had remained outside of Singapore on an expired passport.

He had submitted a new passport application to the ICA from overseas, it said.

ICA has processed his passport application, and he will be required to return to Singapore to collect his passport, the ICA added.

“He can obtain a Document of Identity from the nearest overseas mission to facilitate his return.”

The agency added: “ICA would like to clarify that, contrary to what he has claimed on the States Times Review Facebook page, there was no ‘deal’ struck between ICA and him, for the issuance of his passport.”

Mr Tan, a self-professed independent opposition politician, has been living in Sydney since March 2015.

The STR Facebook post of April 4 also said the 31-year-old will be “facing numerous hundreds of charges in Singapore including contempt of court, criminal defamation, and charges relating to foreign intervention, infringements of the Protection From Harassment Act, and the new Protection From Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill”.

The Protection From Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill, a set of proposed laws against fake news, was tabled in Parliament on April 1. It has not been passed and has not become law yet.

The Facebook post added that the combined charges will see Mr Tan facing an “estimated aggregate sentencing amounting to no less than 200 years in jail”.

TODAY has reached out to the Singapore Police Force to verify these claims.

Mr Tan has had several run-ins with the authorities over contents published on his alternative news sites, Singapore Herald, Singapore Hereld, and the STR Facebook page.

In 2016, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam made a police report against STR, over an article that attributed comments to him which he had not made.

The article, published anonymously in October that year, said that Mr Shanmugam had made comments about the Eurasian community at a forum on changes to the Elected Presidency.

And in November 2018, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) filed a police report against the author of another STR article for making false and malicious statements that “impugned the integrity” of the financial regulator.

That article alleged that Malaysia had signed several unfair agreements with Singapore, in exchange for Singapore banks’ assistance in laundering funds from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

The Singapore Herald, as well as the STR Facebook page, are no longer active, but Mr Tan continues to publish content both on his personal Facebook page and his blog.