AKIPRESS.COM - A Facebook user who threatened to “open fire” on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community was charged on Thursday for encouraging violence towards the LGBT community in Singapore, reports Channel News Asia.

On June 4, Bryan Lim wrote that he wanted to “open fire” and “protect his nation” in response to a post on foreign funding of Pink Dot, an annual event organized in support of the LGBT community.

“I am a Singaporean citizen. I am a NSman. I am a father. And I swore to protect my nation,” the 36-year-old Lim wrote on June 4. “Give me the permission to open fire. I would like to see these £@€$^*s die for their causes.”

After his comment made the rounds on social media, several Facebook users lodged police reports against him. “This man made an open threat of violence to a specific group of Singaporeans if given the opportunity,” Stanley Tan wrote on the Facebook page of the Singapore Police Force. “Would this be considered an internal terrorist act?”

Lim subsequently apologized for his strongly worded comment, claiming that it had been “taken out of context.”

“I did not mean physical bullets nor physical death,” he wrote. “I mean open fire in debate and remove them from Singapore domestic matters.”

His case will be mentioned again on August 4, and investigations are still ongoing. Lim's desktop, laptop and phone have been seized.

For communicating an incitement to violence via the Internet, Lim could be jailed up to five years, fined, or both.