Singapore: French teen in trouble over straw-licking video
A French student is accused of licking a straw at a juice vending machine before putting it back and posting the video online. He faces
A French student is accused of licking a straw at a juice vending machine before putting it back and posting the video online. He faces jail time if convicted in Singapore, a country famous for its tough laws. A French teenager charged after allegedly licking a straw from a vending machine and placing it back in the dispenser is set to enter a plea in a Singapore court. On Friday, Singapore's largest English-language daily The Strait Times reported that he was expected to plead guilty.
What do we know about the straw-licking case? The 19-year-old Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien was not present at the district court on Friday when his lawyer said that the teen would enter a plea on July 13. On March 12, Maximilien, a business student in Singapore, allegedly filmed himself licking a straw from an iJooz orange juice vending machine before returning it to the dispenser and posting the video on social media. The viral clip prompted intense public outrage and left Maximilien facing charges of public nuisance and committing mischief.
IJooz said it sanitized the dispenser while replacing all 500 straws in the machine [FILE: May 29, 2026] Image: Achmad Ibrahim/AP Photo/picture alliance According to court documents, Maximilien posted the video on Instagram knowing it "would or would probably cause annoyance to the public" and also "cause wrongful loss or damage" to iJooz. The company, which operates juice vending machines, said it had to replace all 500 straws in the dispenser. If convicted, Maximilien could face up to three months in jail for public nuisance and up to two years for mischief, in addition to fines, according to the charge sheet.
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The BriefWire