17 July 2012 :

a Chinese national sentenced to hang, in Singapore, for killing a taxi driver three years ago has failed in his appeal to escape the gallows. Wang Wenfeng, 33, claimed he had hatched a plan to rob a taxi driver in order to buy an air ticket to return home and did not intend to kill 58-year-old Mr Yuen Swee Hong, whose decomposed body was found 15 days after the murder. But Justice Lee Seiu Kin had ruled there was no doubt that Wang, who brought with him a change of clothes, stabbed Mr Yuen in the early hours of April 11, 2009, with the intention to cause injury sufficient to result in death. In the Court of Appeal, Wang's lawyer Wendell Wong argued that Justice Lee had erred in finding Wang - who had consistently maintained the injuries were accidentally inflicted in a struggle in a completely dark cab - had an intention to kill Mr Yuen. In affirming Justice Lee's ruling and dismissing Wang's appeal, Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong said the five wounds inflicted during the struggle "just cannot be accidental".