SINGAPORE: MAN WHO ESCAPED THE GALLOWS FOR KILLING CNB OFFICER GETS DEATH SENTENCE FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING
November 4, 2020: A 61-year-old man on 2 November 2020 was sentenced to the mandatory death penalty in Singapore for trafficking in at least 78.77g of heroin, almost three decades after escaping the hangman’s noose for killing a Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officer. In 1994, Roshdi Abdullah Altway was convicted of a reduced charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder by the Court of Appeal, which found that he had killed the officer in self-defence. Roshdi was a CNB informer at the time, The Straits Times reported previously. He had struck the officer’s head with a granite mortar when the officer went to his Serangoon flat, because he thought the officer was going for his revolver. The officer tried to choke him during the scuffle as well. Roshdi was sentenced to 10 years’ jail over the killing, coupled with six years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane for possessing a revolver and six bullets. He also served a 12-year jail sentence for drug trafficking. In her written grounds of decision released on 2 November, High Court judge Valerie Thean pointed to these prior convictions in rejecting Roshdi’s assertions that he involuntarily gave nine statements to police officers. He was arrested in 2016 for his current offences and charged with possessing the heroin for the purpose of trafficking. Roshdi was arrested at the void deck of Block 209B, Compassvale Lane in Sengkang on 14 September 2016. CNB officers searched the room he was in and discovered more than 200 packets and straws of a powdery substance, as well as drug paraphernalia. During his trial, Roshdi admitted to possessing and knowing the nature of the drugs, but he disputed having the drugs for trafficking purposes, saying he was safekeeping them instead. (Sources: todayonline.com, 02/11/2020)
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