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SINGAPORE: A man who escaped from the gallows in 1994 after killing a Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officer was sentenced to death for possession of trafficking drugs.
In pleas published on Monday (November 2), Judge Valerie Thean said she gave the mandatory death sentence to Roshdi Abdullah Altway, 61, on a single count of possession of a controlled drug for trafficking.
Roshdi was arrested on September 14, 2016 on the empty deck of Block 209B, Compassvale Lane with S $ 18,000 on him. At least 78.77 g of diamorphine, also known as heroin, along with various drug paraphernalia, was recovered from the room he rented in Sengkang’s flat.
During the trial, Roshdi admitted to possessing the heroin, but denied doing so for trafficking purposes. He claimed that he had stored the drugs in a safe place for a person known only as Aru, with the intention of returning them, and asked the court to modify the drug possession charge.
He argued that he had made certain statements based on alleged incentives from police officers, saying that an officer had told him: “Now Singapore has a new law. If this is not yours, they will not hang you. Fearful.”
As a result, Roshdi said that he was inadvertently induced to make his statements to the officer and that the statements were therefore inadmissible under the law.
However, Judge Thean said that a psychiatrist who examined Roshdi found that the defendant was suspicious of the CNB agents, so it was unlikely that he would trust them.
This was due to a 10-year prison sentence that involved the involuntary manslaughter of a CNB officer and a 12-year sentence for drug trafficking.
“In light of Roshdi’s history and personal circumstances, the expectation was that Roshdi would be skeptical and cautious, not confident and unquestioned,” the judge said.
INCONSISTENCIES IN YOUR EVIDENCE AT TRIAL
Roshdi had admitted in statements to receiving, repacking and delivering drugs multiple times, and agreed to help Aru repackage and distribute drugs to customers for S $ 100 per “head” of heroin.
“Roshdi’s version at trial that he was simply guarding the drugs was, therefore, diametrically opposite to what he described in his statements,” Judge Thean said.
“According to him, he agreed to keep the drugs in a safe place because Aru had offered him money and convinced him to do so. Roshdi claimed that Aru would give him the drugs to keep and that they were packaged.”
Roshdi claimed that the S $ 18,000 found when he was arrested was for a delivery of anchovies that he was waiting for.
The judge considered that the explanations given in Roshdi’s statements were “detailed, coherent and consistent”, while his evidence at trial “did not stand up to scrutiny.”
The inconsistencies in his evidence “were part of a general pattern of evasion,” Judge Thean said.
LIES, ILLOGICAL ANSWERS
Roshdi had also admitted that about 30 percent of his statements to the psychiatrist were lies, and that he would have lied in his statements if they had not “induced” him to do so.
“Roshdi’s stated willingness to lie, along with his illogical responses on the stand, addressed questions of general credibility and were consistent with my conclusion that the statements, rather than his version on the stand, were reliable.”
It found that the prosecution had proven the element of possession for trafficking purposes beyond reasonable doubt.
Roshdi escaped the death penalty in 1994 after his sentence for murdering a CNB officer was overturned and instead imprisoned for wrongful death committed in self-defense.
Roshdi had hit the officer with a granite mortar during a money fight when he thought the officer was looking for his revolver. The blow left multiple fractures in the officer’s skull and his body was later found in Roshdi’s car.
