Is the law not strong enough to convict them or are they really
innocent? Lucky maybe.
A businessman originally accused of murder was given a discharge
not amounting to an acquittal for the Sentosa trolley-bag murder
that occurred last year.
Teo Boon Leng, 45, was in remand since April 2011. No reason was
given for the discharge.
Teo's lawyers are calling for a full acquittal, reported The
Straits Times.
A discharge not amounting to an acquittal means Teo can be
charged if new evidence is brought up, while full acquittal means
Teo cannot be charged again for the same offence.
Teo was originally charged with killing Mr Dylan Wong Teck Siong
in a fifth-floor unit at the Caribbean at Keppel Bay
condominium.
Wong's body was found stuffed in a trolley bag floating off
Sentosa.
The bag containing Wong's body was discovered by two foreign
construction workers near the shore, close to a worksite on the
west side of Resorts World Sentosa.
The workers, a Myanmar national and an Indian national, took the
bag ashore and alerted their supervisor, who called the police.
Wong's body was found clothed and curled in a foetal position.
No identification papers were found.
Teo and Wong are believed to have been in a relationship.
The prosecution tendered 15 new charges against Teo.
The Straits Times reported that the charges include: - Using Mr
Wong's mobile phone to transmit false messages
- Depositing the trolley bag containing Mr Wong's corpse at the
sea
- Having drug utensils for drug-taking
- Failing to report Mr Wong's death to the police as soon as
practicable
A Bangladeshi cleaner was granted a discharge not amounting to
an acquittal yesterday over the death of an Indonesian maid, whose
body was found in a water tank. But the cleaner faces new charges
not related to the murder.
Repon Mostafa, 29, had been charged with the murder of Ms
Ruliyawati, 30, on the rooftop of Block 686B Woodlands Drive 73 in
May last year. He now faces five new charges not related to the
murder, including three for trespassing on the rooftop of Block
686B last year. The other two charges relate to possessing an
obscene film and eight uncertified video files containing films in
his mobile phone.
District Judge Lim Tse Haw ordered Mostafa to be remanded after he
failed to raise $5,000 bail. His case was adjourned to July 24 for
his lawyer Ram Goswami to take instructions from his client.
Yesterday’s decision to grant the discharge to Mostafa, who has
been in remand for a year, left lawyers mystified as to what had
led to the turn of events.
His lawyer told The Straits Times that Mostafa had denied the
murder and informed the police that the maid had told him many
times that she wanted to die because of personal problems. It
emerged in his claims to his lawyer that the maid had used a
five-inch folding knife, which she had brought, to slash herself on
the stomach at the rooftop. She did this, he said, to scare him
into giving her the keys to the water tank. He pulled away the
knife and was cut in his hand. He gave her the keys, saying he was
afraid.
He also claimed she wanted to have sex. When he refused, she cut
herself on her right thigh, so he yielded out of fear. After they
had sex, she used his T-shirt to wipe the blood from her wounds.
She then climbed up the water tank, and when he tried to stop her,
she used the knife to take a swipe at his arms.
She unlocked and lifted the cover and asked him to follow,
threatening to kill herself if he did not. He followed her down the
ladder into the tank where the water level was up to her neck and
up to his chest. She asked him to die with her but he refused. He
tried to climb out and call the police but she held him back. She
kept her head under the water several times. He pulled her up
several times but got tired and let go. He later found her
motionless body.
Subsequently, his foreman arrived at the scene and the police were
called.
An appeals court in Australia has acquitted Singaporean student
Ram Puneet Tiwary, who was twice convicted of murdering his two
flatmates in Sydney.
The 33-year-old has spent more than eight years behind bars and
will likely go free.
Tiwary was accused of murdering fellow Singaporeans Tay Chow Lyang
and Tony Tan Poh Chuan in 2003. The two were stabbed and clubbed to
death with a baseball bat.
All three were studying at the University of New South Wales at the
time.
Tiwary was convicted of both murders in 2006 and given a life
sentence without parole.
He successfully appealed, but faced a retrial in 2009. He was again
found guilty, and this time, handed a jail term of 48 years.
Tiwary has maintained his innocence, claiming he was asleep at the
time of the brutal attacks.
But prosecutors said Tiwary killed his flatmates over money he owed
in rent, said to be more than US$5,000.
The appeals court is expected to reveal the reasons for the
acquittal at a later date.
