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SINGAPORE – Two fire station commanders implicated in the horrific death of a 22-year-old full-time national serviceman in 2018 were jailed on Tuesday (September 15) for 10 weeks each.
Singapore Civil Defense Force (SCDF) Lieutenant Kenneth Chong Chee Boon, 39, and First Senior Petty Officer Nazhan Mohamed Nazi, 42, had been convicted in July by Senior District Judge Ong Hian Sun of committing a negligent act that endangered human life.
They had failed to prevent their subordinates from driving Corporal Kok Yuen Chin into a 12-meter-deep pump shaft on May 13, 2018.
Chong was the commander while Nazhan was the deputy commander in charge of Rota 3 officers from the Tuas View fire station.
A total of five SCDF servicemen, including Chong and Nazhan, were charged in Kok’s death in July 2018.
Initially, the two commanders had been accused of causing serious damage by reckless act. They claimed trial and the judge amended their charges after finding that the prosecution had not proven their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
About the case
On Kok’s last day of service, May 13, 2018, he was celebrating his impending Operationally Ready Date (ORD) three days from now. Rota 3 officers gathered in the fire station surveillance room on the ground floor around 8:30 pm to commemorate their ORD with a cake and plaque.
Staff Sergeant Muhammad Nur Fatwa Mahmood then suggested that Kok participate in an ORD ritual of entering the bomb shaft, or “kolam,” despite being an explicitly prohibited form of rags in SCDF.
Kok was reluctant to do so and was taken to the well, which filled with water to a depth of 11 m. They prompted him to remove his personal belongings and he sat on the edge of the well. Finally, another officer, First Petty Officer Mohamed Farid Mohd Saleh, told Fatwa to push Kok.
Fatwa did so and Kok fell into the water without surfacing again. He was found 36 minutes later and paramedics pronounced him dead.
During the commanders’ trial, the court heard that Chong did not accompany his subordinates to the well, but instead stuck his head out of a room window to tell the group not to film the incident.
Meanwhile, Nazhan followed the group to the well, but went to his office before the incident occurred.
Finding the duo guilty of their negligence charges, Judge Ong said “there was no concrete plan” to carry out the mess, which happened spontaneously. And the commanders didn’t order their subordinates to make a fuss either.
Fatwa “took matters into his own hands” and pushed Kok, to the surprise of many in the military, the judge said. This happened so suddenly that the rest were in no condition to stop it, he added.
Chong and Nazhan also didn’t get a chance to intervene because they weren’t in the well. However, they showed a “breach of duty” by failing to stop carrying out a prohibited activity, the district judge said.
“They are legally bound, as Kok commanders, to ensure that Kok’s life and safety are not in danger while he was on duty. The responsibility of preventing the execution of the ‘kolam’ fell on both defendants. Failure to do so amounted to an illegal omission, ”said the judge.
While his original charges carry a jail term of up to two years and / or a fine of up to $ 5,000, his amended charges are punishable by up to three months in jail and / or a fine of up to $ 1,500.
Farid, who instigated Fatwa to push Kok into the well, was jailed for 13 months for inciting Fatwa to commit a reckless act.
Meanwhile, Fatwa was jailed for a year for committing a reckless act that did not amount to wrongful death and instigating Sergeant Adighazali Suhaimi in obstruction of justice by asking him to delete a video of the incident.
Adighazali, who filmed Kok being pushed into the well on his phone, deleted the recording at Fatwa’s instigation. He was jailed for a month for obstructing the course of justice by removing evidence.
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