Public Prosecutor v Asep Karyadi

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Edgar Foo
• Judgment Date: 17 May 2019
• Neutral Citation: [2019] SGDC 93
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Hearing Date: 07 February 2019,18 April 2019,20 March 2019
• Docket Number: DAC 904169 of 2018, Magistrate’s Appeal No. 9092/2019/01
• Plaintiff Counsel: DPP Michelle Lu
• Defendant Counsel: Mr Amarick Gill (M/s Amarick Gill LLC)
• Published date: 13 March 2020

District Judge Edgar Foo: Introduction

The accused, a 24-year-old Indonesian National/Singapore Permanent Resident male, had pleaded guilty to 1 charge under section 147 of the Penal Code (Cap 224). Another charge under section 9 of Misuse of Drugs Act was taken into consideration for the purposes of sentencing.

I sentenced the accused to a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment.

The accused being dissatisfied with my decision has filed an appeal against my sentence.

The Charges

The proceeded charge read as follows:

1st CHARGE (AMENDED) - DAC 904169-2018

You … are charged that you, on the 21st day of August 2017 at or about 12.30am., in the vicinity of Blk 575 Hougang Street 51, Singapore, together with: (B1) Muhammad Furqan Firdaus Bin Mohamad Sazali; (B2) Vickneswaran S/O Vangades Varan; (B3) Muhammad Rohaizat Bin Juraimy; (B4) Muhammad Al Amin Bin Abdul Latiff; (B6) Muhammad Darwiis Bin Zainudin; (B7) Nurul Eizwan Bin Sulaimi; (B8) Muhammad Zulfiqarl Bin Mohamed Rudy; (B9) Benjamin Ang Wee Hao; and

were members of an unlawful assembly whose common object was to cause hurt to one Lim Jia Cai, Kenny, and one Teo Yue Teck, Frederick, and in prosecution of the said common object of the said assembly, some or all of you did use violence on the said Lim Jia Cai, Kenny and Teo Yue Teck, Frederick, to wit, by pushing, punching and kicking the said Lim Jia Cai, Kenny and Teo Yue Teck, Frederick, and you have thereby committed an offence of rioting punishable under Section 147 of the Penal Code (Chapter 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

Statement of Facts

The accused admitted to the following Statement of Facts without qualification.

The accused whose Date of Birth is 24 November 1994 was serving his National Service with SCDF at the material time.

The accomplices are: a. (B1) Muhammad Furqan Firdaus Bin Mohamad Sazali (“Furqan”), male, 18 years old (D.O.B.: 23 June 2000), Singaporean (NRIC No. XXX). He is a student at ITE College East. b. (B2) Vickneswaran s/o Vangades Varan (“Vickneswaran”), male, 18 years old (D.O.B.: 12 February 2000), Singaporean (NRIC No. XXX). He is a student at ITE College Central. c. (B3) Muhammad Rohaizat Bin Juraimy (“Rohaizat”), male, 22 years old (D.O.B.: 26 March 1996), Singaporean (NRIC No. XXX). He is working as a delivery man. d. (B4) Muhammad Al Amin Bin Abdul Latiff (“Amin”), male, 18 years old (D.O.B.: 6 March 2000), Singaporean (NRIC No. XXX). He is a student at ITE College Central. e. (B6) Muhammad Darwiis Bin Zainudin (“Darwiis”), male, 22 years old (D.O.B.: 22 October 1996), Singaporean (NRIC No. XXX). He was serving his National Service with SAF at the material time. f. (B7) Nurul Eizwan Bin Sulaimi (“Eizwan”), male, 18 years old (D.O.B.: 26 August 2000), Singaporean (NRIC No. XXX). He is a student at ITE College Central. g. (B8) Muhammad Zulfiqarl Bin Muhamed Rudy (“Zulfiqarl”), male, 22 years old (D.O.B.: 29 January 1996), Singaporean (NRIC No. XXX). He is working as a packer. h. (B9) Benjamin Ang Wee Hao (“Benjamin”), male, 18 years old (D.O.B.: 16 March 2000), Singaporean (NRIC No. XXX). He is unemployed, and is the ex-boyfriend of A3. i. (B10) Aloysius Cheng Kai Yuan (“Aloysius”), male, 21 years old (Date of Birth: 19 January 1997), Singaporean (NRIC No. XXX). At the material time, he was 20 years old and was unemployed.

Vickneswaran and Rohaizat are members of Ang Soon Tong secret society. Amin, Benjamin and Aloysius are members of Hai Lok San secret society of the ‘108’ group, and Darwiis and Zulfiqarl are members of Sio Kun Tong secret society.

The victims are: (A1) Lim Jia Cai Kenny, a 19-year-old Male Singaporean (“Kenny”);and (A2) Frederick Teo Yue Teck, a 22-year-old Male Singaporean (“Frederick”). He is Kenny’s friend.

The witnesses are: (A3) Andrea Mok Yuen Yee, an 18-year-old, female, Singaporean. At the material time, she was Benjamin’s ex-girlfriend. (A4) Ng Wuang Chin, a 26-year-old Female Singaporean. At the material time, she was Frederick’s girlfriend. (A5) Praveen s/o K Krishnan, a 19-year-old Male Singaporean. He is Kenny’s friend. (A6) Tan Darren, a 17-year-old Male Singaporean. He is Benjamin’s friend. (A7) Tan Wei Lun, a 17-year-old Male Singaporean. He is Benjamin’s friend.

First Information Report

On 21 August 2017 at around 12.30 am, Police received a ‘999’call with the message:

“About 15 to 20 boys are running and shouting. They are screaming like ‘Mati Mati’. Like they are fighting.”

The incident location given was Blk 575 Hougang Street 51, Singapore. Facts Pertaining to DAC 904169-2018

Investigations revealed that on 20 August 2017 at about 9pm, A3 met up with a group of seven friends, including Kenny, for a karaoke session at Ci Yuan Community Centre (“Ci Yuan CC”). Benjamin was hanging out at Blk 126 Rivervale with Aloysius when he saw a video A3 had posted of the karaoke session on Snapchat. Benjamin texted A3 to express his displeasure that A3 was seated next to another guy in the video, and they started quarrelling via text message.

Benjamin asked Aloysius to follow him to Ci Yuan CC to look for A3 and the guy she was with. Benjamin and Aloysius thus took an Uber down to Ci Yuan CC. Whilst on the way there, Benjamin also called Amin and asked him to come down to Ci Yuan CC to help him as he was having trouble with some Chinese guys there. Benjamin also asked A6 and A7 to meet him at Ci Yuan CC as they had earlier made plans to meet that night. Amin was with Rohaizat, Darwiis, Zulfiqarl and the accused at that point in time to celebrate a mutual friend’s birthday, and asked them to go down to Ci Yuan CC to help Benjamin. Amin left the group first to go down to Ci Yuan CC. Whilst on his way down, Amin also contacted Eizwan, and asked him to go down to Ci Yuan CC. At that point in time, Eizwan had met up with Furqan and Vickneswaran, and all three of them decided to go down to Ci Yuan CC.

Furqan, Vickneswaran, Amin, Eizwan, Benjamin, Aloysius, A6 and A7 met up at Ci Yuan CC to look for A3 and her group of friends. B9 found out A3’s karaoke room number from the counter staff, and together with Furqan, Vickneswaran, Amin, Eizwan, Benjamin, Aloysius, A6 and A7, confronted her in the karaoke room. A3 agreed to go out of the karaoke room to talk with Benjamin, and A3 and Benjamin had a heated argument along the corridor with their respective groups of friends watching. During the course of the argument, Benjamin pushed A3 and she fell down on the ground. Kenny then asked A3 to leave the place with the rest of their friends. As Kenny was leaving Ci Yuan CC, Rohaizat, Dawiis, Zulfiqarl and the accused arrived to meet the rest of the accused persons. Kenny and Darwiis knew each other from their stint in Boys’ Home, and spoke briefly before Kenny left Ci Yuan CC.

Kenny, A3 and three other friends then walked over to the badminton courts near Blk 575 Hougang Street 51 to hang out. Frederick, A4 and A5 later joined them at the badminton courts, as Kenny had called them for help because of the argument between A3 and Benjamin earlier that night.

Meanwhile, the accused persons realised that there were many police cars patrolling the area, and thus decided to split up. Some female friends had accompanied the accused persons to Ci Yuan CC, and were told to stay in the van which was parked nearby. The accused persons walked around the area in smaller groups, while A6 and A7 stayed at a nearby void deck. Shortly after, Darwiis received a call from Kenny and they had an argument regarding the events earlier that night. Amin told Darwiis that they should go and confront Kenny. Amin also called Benjamin and informed him that Kenny was finding trouble with the rest of the group, and asked him to come along and look for Kenny. Benjamin informed him that Kenny was the badminton courts near Blk 575 Hougang Street 51, and they agreed to meet at one of the nearby void decks first. All the accused persons eventually gathered at one of the nearby void decks, and had a quick discussion about how they should run up to the group and attack the Chinese guy wearing jeans, namely Kenny, straight away.

At around 12.30am on 21 August 2017, the accused persons ran towards A1 to A5 and three other persons, who were seated at the badminton courts and shouted vulgarities at them. Upon seeing the accused persons running towards them, A1 to A5 and the three persons quickly stood up and ran away.

Benjamin and Aloysius caught up with Kenny, and started scolding and pushing him. Amin then punched Kenny on his face. Vickneswaran, Darwiis, Zulfiqarl and the accused joined in to punch and kick Kenny. Kenny tried to block the blows to his head with his arms. The other accused persons tried to chase after Frederick, A3, A4, A5 and the three other persons, but were unable to catch up with them. The accused persons then dispersed when someone shouted “Police!”.

A while later, Frederick returned to the vicinity of the badminton courts as he was looking for his girlfriend A4. All the accused persons except for Benjamin and Aloysius were also walking around the area, and bumped into Frederick at the badminton courts. They approached Frederick and asked him whether he had been with Kenny earlier that night. When Frederick answered in the affirmative, one member of the group punched him in the face. Frederick then tried to run away from the group. However, the group chased after Frederick and managed to catch up with him, and began assaulting him by punching and kicking him. Frederick then lost consciousness, and collapsed on the ground.

The accused persons dispersed, with some of them leaving via the van in which their female friends were waiting in. Police officers on patrol stopped the van as it was leaving the area, and all the accused persons except for Benjamin and Aloysius were arrested on the same morning. Benjamin and Aloysius were traced and arrested a few...