Couple charged under sedition act

A couple were charged on Tuesday with distributing a seditious publication to two others.

Ong Kian Cheong, 49, and Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 44, are alleged to have distributed The Little Bride, an evangelistic material, to Sembawang resident Irwan Ariffin last Oct 19.

They are also said to have distributed the same publication to one Madam Farharti Ahmad at her home in Woodlands on March 6 last year .

It is not clear why they face the Sedition Act and the Undesirable Publication Act when the publication is the same.

Ong, who works in a telecommunications company, and his wife, a bank employee, were represented by Mr Selva K. Naidu. (story)

Slapping case refused out of court settlement

The wife of a tycoon, who is charged with slapping a Singapore Airlines (SIA) stewardess, tried to settle the case out of court but this was turned down by the prosecution.

The lawyer for Tan Siew Hoon, 61, said this when she made a brief appearance in a District Court on Thursday.

Mr Ravinderpal Singh told Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan that he had written again to the prosecution to consider his ‘representations’, which are normally pleas to have charges withdrawn or reduced. He asked for the case to be adjourned to await a reply.

Tan is accused of voluntarily causing hurt to Ms Then Jiamin, 25, on board an SIA flight to Tokyo, on Sept 20 last year. She and her husband, Mr Wong Ngit Liong, 65, who is the chairman and CEO of Venture Corp, one of Singapore’s biggest manufacturing firms, were in the business class cabin at the time.

If convicted, Tan can be jailed a year and fined $1,000. (story)

Man sentenced to 6 months for mahjong attack

The four friends had played mahjong every week for more than seven years. On Nov 22 last year, the game took a violent turn when 40-year-old Chua Kim Poo was accused of cheating and beaten up.

Tan Leng Yuan, 43, was jailed for six months on Thursday for punching and kicking Mr Chua and stealing $216 from him.

His accomplices, Goh Fui Foo, 40, and Lek Swee Heng, 48, have yet to be dealt with.

A district court heard the four mahjong kakis or partners were playing at a flat in Block 9 Teck Whye Lane at 8.30pm.

When the game ended an hour later, Mr Chua won a total of $60 from the rest.

Lek accused Mr Chua of cheating and they started arguing on the 9th floor staircase landing.

Tan then joined in and punched and kicked Mr Chua. He then took $216 from Mr Chua and handed the money to Lek. (story)

Wanted man finally arrested after 10 years

Wanted by police for more than 10 years, Goh Chee Kiong was found out when the cops went to break up a quarrel between him and a Chinese national in Geylang on Jan 7.

Goh was jailed for two years and ordered to be given six strokes of the cane on Thursday for an attempted robbery in 1998.

He also admitted to stealing $45,400 from two companies and cheating a woman of $1,000, for which he was jailed another seven months.

A district court heard that Goh, an assistant manager with Studio Cinemas in 1997, stole $25,800 from the safe and went on the run. (story)

Cellphone robbers face harsh punishments

3 men recruited to carry out a million-dollar cellphone heist and fatally assaulted a lorry driver were convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. Daniel Vijay Katherasan, 25, Christoper Samson Anpalagan, 25, and Nakamuthu Balakrishnan, 49, had brutally bashed up Mr Wan Cheon Kem while robbing his $1.3-million cargo of 2,700 Sony Ericsson cellphones.

An autopsy found that Mr Wan suffered at least 15 blows.

The trio had been roped in to execute the robbery, but the brains behind the plot were Arsan Krishnasamy Govindarajoo, 40, and Ragu Ramajayam, 37. (story)

Victims testify at Wong Heng Chiang car crash trial

6 victims of an out-of-control car which crashed into a bus stop along Penang Road recounted the trauma of being hit by the charging car while waiting for their buses one evening.

One of them, Madam Tan Hong Eng, 67, was so badly affected by the May 1 accident last year that she is unable to sleep and has developed psychiatric problems.

‘I am still in pain from my injuries. I still feel upset and depressed about the accident and I am unable to sleep properly at night.’

‘I find it difficult to walk or to sit for long without pain,’ she said in her conditioned statement tendered in court on Monday.

She and another witness, Madam Leng Lay Ling, 57, gave conditioned statements as their attendance was not required because they both have difficulty walking. The other four victims testified in court on Monday on Day One of Wong Heng Chiang’s trial. (story)

Wife and teenage lover on trial for murder of husband

The wife of a slain disc jockey and her alleged teenage accomplice are expected to go on trial next month for murder. Aniza Essa, 25, and Muhammad Nasir Abdul Aziz, 17, on Thursday were committed to stand trial in the High Court.

Trial dates have been set for April 7 to 18.

The pair are accused of murdering Mr Manap Sarlip, 29, outside the couple’s flat at Block 74 Whampoa Drive on July 1 last year.

They were arrested separately a day after the killing.

Aniza and Muhammad Nasir had apparently met while they were working at a Beach Road pub. The teenager is said to be Aniza’s lover.

While the teen is charged with the murder, Aniza is charged with abetting his commission of the offence. (story)

Do you have an illegal licence plate?

Giving a car a Continental touch with a number plate that resembles those used in the European Union might be all the rage, but it is, in fact, illegal. At least two number plate manufacturers have been importing the moulds for these plates directly from Europe, fonts and all, at the cost of up to $80,000.

But the EU number plates use letter and number fonts that are smaller than the Land Transport Authority requires them to be, and their colours might be against the rules, too.

For instance, letters and numbers on licence plates on Singapore registered cars must be 70 mm high and 50 mm wide. (story)

William Ng: criminal for life

At the age of 15, William Ng was sent to the Singapore Boys’ Home for three years for robbing and hurting a victim. He proved too troublesome there and was packed off to the Reformative Training Centre.

Since his release, Ng, now 38, continued to be in trouble with the law.

He has been jailed for fighting and causing hurt, theft, drug possession and consumption, as well as fined for traffic offences.

On Wednesday, he was sent to jail again, this time for six years and two months and ordered to be caned six times for a host of crimes.

He committed some of the offences in 2002 while still under supervision for consuming drugs a year earlier. (story)

David Rasif’s legal troubles piling up

The high Court on Monday issued a warrant of arrest against a friend of David Rasif who had helped the fugitive lawyer move $985,000 to Vietnam.The development came at the end of a hearing into a multi-million dollar civil suit brought by an American couple to recover some of the $10.7 million they had entrusted to Rasif’s firm to buy a house.

Rasif, last seen in Bangkok in June 2006, is a wanted man after absconding with $12 million in clients’ funds.

The defendants include a high-end jewellery store where Rasif went on a $2 million shopping spree as well as pub owner Freddy Lim Soon Kiang, his long-time friend. When the trial began in June last year, the court heard that Mr Lim had opened a bank account in Ho Chi Minh City.

He helped Rasif move US$620,000 - the equivalent of S$985,180 at the time - from the clients’ account of his law firm to the Vietnam account. (story)