Murder of Koh Ngiap Yong
On 8 August 2000 in Singapore, a group of three men, who were armed with firearms with an intent to commit robbery, had robbed and killed a taxi driver in midst of a planned crime spree. The victim was a 42-year-old taxi driver named Koh Ngiap Yong, whose taxi was taken by the trio as an escape vehicle for future robbery crimes and whom the three men killed by using a bayonet to stab him to death. In the aftermath of Koh's murder, the robbers had committed yet another robbery and also shot and killed their next victim, 39-year-old Jahabar Sathick, an Indian moneychanger.
It was only in October 2000 when the three men were finally caught and charged with the murders of Koh Ngiap Yong and the second victim, Jahabar Sathick. The three killers were eventually found guilty in September 2001 and sentenced to be executed by hanging in Changi Prison, resulting in their executions in October 2002.
Crime and investigations
Murder of Koh Ngiap Yong
On 8 August 2000, the day before Singapore’s annual National Day, Koh Ngiap Yong, a taxi driver and father of three children, had just finished driving his daughter to school when he picked up three male Malay passengers, who hailed his TIBS taxi from an area around Bukit Batok. After boarding his taxi, the three men asked Koh to drive them to Chestnut Avenue.After he drove to Chestnut Avenue and reached a quiet, deserted forest area, the three men suddenly wielded a bayonet and two guns, and threatened Koh, who fearfully tried to plead for his life and offer to pay anything to the robbers, and told them he had a family to feed. The robbers took out a pair of handcuffs and cuffed Koh’s wrists, before the taxi driver was led into the bushes, where one of them used the bayonet to stab Koh several times on the neck and chest, and after which, they took away Koh’s wallet and the handcuff and they left the taxi driver to die from his wounds beneath the vegetation as the trio drove off in Koh’s taxi. Koh Ngiap Yong was 42 years old when he died.
When Koh did not return that evening or the next day’s morning, Koh’s family lodged a missing person report with the police. Coincidentally, on the morning of 9 August 2000, at Chestnut Avenue, when three young boys were cycling to school along that same road, one of the students accidentally discovered Koh’s corpse in the forest. This prompted the police to rush to the scene after a report was made.
Koh’s murder was the second case of a taxi driver being murdered in Singapore during the year 2000. The first happened two months before in June 2000, when Ong Huay Dee was murdered by a Thai carpenter named Khwan-On Natthaphon during a robbery bid. Khwan-On was later found guilty and sentenced to death for the murder, and he was hanged on 27 September 2002.
First-stage investigations
Upon the report, Senior Station Inspector Zainal Abidin bin Ismail arrived at the scene with his group of officers, and a search was made in the nearby area. It resulted in a handcuff key being found nearby the location where the boy found Koh’s body; the robbers accidentally dropped it before they left Koh for dead the day before. The forensic pathologist, Dr Teo Eng Swee of the Health Sciences Authority, conducted an autopsy of the victim and found that the cause of Koh’s death was due to four of the bayonet wounds found on his chest, each of which he ascertained could cause Koh’s death even if the wounds were separate.The lack of defensive injuries on Koh made Dr Teo believe that Koh was either immobilized or unconscious when he was killed by his assailant. The investigations on 10 August 2000 also led to the police to trace the last location of Koh Ngiap Yong’s taxi, which was found abandoned in a carpark in Bukit Batok. Other than that, there were no other clues for the police to further investigate Koh’s death and it remained unsolved.
Fatal shooting of Jahabar Sathick
18 days later, on 26 August 2000, the police received a report that a man was shot dead by two Malay men at an overhead bridge in Jalan Kukoh. In response, a police team, led by Assistant Superintendent of Police Richard Lim Beng Gee, arrived at the scene where 39-year-old Indian-born moneychanger Jahabar Sathick was murdered.A witness told police that she saw Sathick being threatened by two men armed with a gun, and after he handed over his bag, Sathick was shot twice in the head and chest by one of the two men despite his pleas for mercy. At the time of his death, Sathick, then a Singapore Permanent Resident, was married to 28-year-old Janyam Begum, with whom he had three children.
Investigations and breakthrough
A search in the nearby area yielded a spent cartridge, which was confirmed by experts to be coming from a pistol. After speaking to Sathick's widow and family, the police confirmed that whenever Sathick ended his work for the day and returned home daily, he often carried a bag that contained only his cellphone but no other valuables. The bag and phone were both missing, as they were being stolen by the two robbers after they shot Sathick to death.The police investigations, which lasted until 15 October 2000, has allowed the investigators to trace the phone records of Sathick’s missing handphone, which they found to be still in use after 26 August 2000 when Sathick was killed. They found that there were three possible suspects from the frequency of the calls to whichever numbers the cellphone has dialled to. The three suspects were identified to be 33-year-old Wan Kamil bin Mohamed Shafian, 35-year-old Ibrahim bin Mohamed, and 30-year-old Rosli bin Ahmat.
After the identification of the three suspects, ASP Lim then led an operation to simultaneously arrest all three suspects. It was on 15 October 2000 that a team of Special Tactics and Rescue officers managed to apprehend Wan Kamil, Ibrahim and Rosli in three different locations in Singapore. A search at Wan Kamil’s home yielded two firearms - a Smith & Wesson revolver and a Colt semi-automatic pistol. The police also found eight pairs of handcuffs, but with only seven keys to the cuffs, in which the eighth key was missing.
From this, ASP Lim suspected that the trio might be involved in Koh Ngiap Yong’s murder at Chestnut Avenue, since there was coincidentally a similarly-shaped handcuff key being recovered from the place where Koh was murdered. After some probing, the three men admitted that they were involved in Koh’s murder. Ibrahim and Wan Kamil were both the two men seen at the crime scene robbing and killing Sathick.
Upon a tip-off by Wan Kamil’s friend, in which the friend informed the police that there was a locker in a Choa Chu Kang shopping mall that belonged to Wan Kamil. Inside, a bayonet was found in the locker. While no traces of blood were found on it at first, traces of Mr Koh's blood were later found in the handle by forensic experts after it was taken apart, thus linking the three men to Koh’s murder.
After this, all three men - Wan Kamil, Rosli and Ibrahim - were charged with the murders of Koh Ngiap Yong and Jahabar Sathick on 18 October 2000. If found guilty of murder under Singapore law, they would face the death penalty - the only available sentence then for murder.
Murder trial
On 26 June 2001, Wan Kamil bin Mohamed Shafian, Rosli bin Ahmat and Ibrahim bin Mohamed stood trial in the High Court of Singapore for the murder of Koh Ngiap Yong; the three accused were set to be tried for Jahabar Sathick’s murder on a later date.Wan Kamil was represented by lawyers Ahmad bin Khalis and Shah bin Bhavini; Rosli was assigned with two lawyers David Rasif and Sadari Musari to represent him; Ibrahim was defended by Luke Lee and Johan Ismail. Deputy Public Prosecutor Lawrence Ang and his two colleagues Toh Yung Cheong and April Phang from the Attorney-General’s Chambers were set to prosecute the three men for murder. The presiding judge was M P H Rubin, who later became Singapore’s High Commissioner to South Africa. One of Rosli's lawyers, David Rasif, would eventually become one of Singapore's most wanted fugitives within five years after Rosli's trial as he would swindle around $11.3 million and some gold from his clients and escape from Singapore in 2006. Rasif remained on the run as of today.
Overall, the prosecution’s case was that the three men shared the common intention to commit armed robbery and the actions of one of them to stab Koh to death was in line with their common intention to rob. They also argued that the three men may not have the plan to kill Koh, but it became necessary to avoid any chances of being identified; they also carried weapons beforehand, suggesting that they knew that there would be violence expected in the course of the robbery. With reference to the trio’s plans to rob the goldsmiths and money changers and Cisco officers prior to murdering Koh, the prosecution argued that there was premeditation to commit robbery and use violence if necessary on the part of the three men. As the charge of murder against the trio was third-degree in nature, which meant murder by intentionally inflicting injuries that were sufficient to cause a person's death, the prosecution sought to prove that the men were guilty since the wounds intentionally inflicted on Koh were sufficient to lead to his death, and that the rest should be assumed guilty even if only one of them was the one stabbing Koh since the stabbing was done in furtherance of their common intention to rob the taxi driver.
Still, the defence tried to argue otherwise on behalf of their three clients, who elected to give their defence on the stand. The following were the three men's accounts of what happened.
Wan Kamil’s account
Wan Kamil bin Mohamed Shafian, born on 1 May 1967, was the first accused who went up the stand to give his evidence first. Wan Kamil recounted that before Koh Ngiap Yong’s murder, the three had planned to commit a series of armed robberies; he stated that for this purpose, he travelled to Thailand and went to the town of Songkhla to illegally purchase his two guns and the bayonet they used to kill Koh. Wan Kamil also said that there was an agreement to target moneychangers and goldsmiths as their victims to rob, and they reach a consensus to steal a vehicle to use as their getaway car to escape once they commit each robbery out of their planned crime spree.Wan Kamil stated that on the day they hailed Koh’s taxi in Bukit Batok before killing him, he carried a Timberland bag which contained his pistol, revolver, handcuffs and bayonet, and he admitted he was the one who took out his Colt pistol to threaten Koh at gunpoint to get him out of the taxi. In his statements and on the stand, Wan Kamil pinpointed the third defendant Rosli bin Ahmat as the one who stabbed Koh to death. He stated that he only wanted to handcuff and tie the taxi driver to the tree in Chestnut Avenue before they drove off in the taxi, and would report to the police where Koh was.
Wan Kamil claimed he was all along, together with Ibrahim, inside the taxi while Rosli alone led Koh into the bushes. Wan Kamil stated that it was only then he heard Koh’s cries of pain and saw Rosli returning with the bayonet stained in Koh’s blood. Wan Kamil told the police and court that he was shocked to see Rosli having, at his own accord, used the bayonet to harm and kill Koh when it was not part of their plan and there were no orders from him or Ibrahim to prompt Rosli to harm or finish off the taxi driver. He said that due to his fear that the taxi driver has died, he did not report to the police about the stabbing.
The trio, he said, did not follow their initial plan to rob a Jurong West goldsmith shop and instead, drove to Woodlands and into the area where there were a lot of goldsmith shops, money changers and banks, intending to find a target but ultimately gave up due to the presence of CCTVs. Wan Kamil stated he had no intention of killing Koh and claimed he felt sorry for the death of the taxi driver.