Public Prosecutor v Muhammad Fiqkri Jaffri

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Brenda Tan
• Judgment Date: 22 September 2022
• Neutral Citation: [2022] SGDC 223
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Docket Number: District Arrest Case No 904101 of 2020 & Ors, Magistrate’s Appeal No. 9098-2022-01
• Published date: 30 September 2022
• Year: 2022
• Hearing Date: 23 May 2022,07 April 2022
• Plaintiff Counsel: Deputy Public Prosecutor Dwayne Lum (Attorney General's Chambers)
• Defendant Counsel: Koo Man Ling Audrey (Populus Law Corporation)
• Subject Matter: Criminal Law,Complicity,Common Intention,Offences,Grievous hurt,Offences against Public Servants,Criminal Intimidation,Statutory Offences,Vandalism Act,Societies Act,Criminal Procedure and Sentencing,Sentencing
• Citation: [2022] SGDC 223

District Judge Brenda Tan: Introduction

On 23 February 2020, at about 4.08am at a HDB void deck, the accused, Muhammad Fiqkri Jaffri, a 28-year-old male Singaporean, together with his twin brother, Muhammad Farhan Jaffri (“Farhan”), punched and kicked a police officer multiple times on his face and body resulting in the police officer being unable to follow his ordinary pursuits for 29 days. A few minutes later, around 4.15am, at the service road near the void deck, the accused headbutted a different police officer on the nose causing that police officer to suffer a nasal fracture and laceration and be given five days of outpatient sick leave. The Prosecution described this case as one of the worse instances of brutal, senseless, and gratuitous violence inflicted on police officers to date¹.

The accused was legally represented. He faced a total of seven charges. He pleaded guilty to five proceeded charges and consented to have the remaining two charges taken into consideration (“TIC”) for the purpose of sentencing. I sentenced him to a total of 54 months’ imprisonment (four and a half years’ imprisonment) and six strokes of the cane. The individual sentences that I imposed are set out in the table at [12] and [42] below.

The accused, being dissatisfied with his sentence subsequently filed this appeal from prison where he is presently serving his jail term.

The five proceeded charges

The five charges which the accused pleaded guilty to comprised three counts under the Penal Code, Cap 224 (“PC”), one count under the Vandalism Act, Cap 341 (“VA”) and one count under the Societies Act, Cap 311 (“SA”). The PC charges and the VA charge were committed on the same day on 23 February 2020 in the vicinity of Blk 755 Jurong West Street 74 (“Block 755”). The first PC offence was under s 333 read with (“r/w”) s 34 for causing grievous hurt to Sergeant Chong Jia Wei who was discharging his duty as a public servant at about 4.08am at the void deck of Block 755, in furtherance of the common intention with Farhan. I shall refer to this charge as the “common intention to cause grievous hurt charge”. The second PC offence was under s 333 for causing grievous hurt to Sergeant Chen Jian Da who was also discharging his duty as a public servant at about 4.15am at the service road at Block 755. I shall refer to this charge as the “grievous hurt charge”. The third PC offence was under s 506 (second limb) for committing criminal intimidation against Sergeant Irfan at about 4.15am at the service road at Block 755 by threatening him with death by uttering words in Malay which meant “I let go of this thing, I shoot you until die”. I shall refer to this charge as the “criminal intimidation charge”. The VA charge was under s 3 for an offence of vandalism by kicking the rear right passenger door of a Police Fast Response Car at about 4.40am at the service road at Block 755 while the accused was seated at the rear passenger seat, causing the door to be misaligned which cost $1,255.48 to repair. I shall refer to this charge as the “vandalism charge”. The SA charge was under s 14(3) for being a member of an unlawful society called “Sio Kun Tong” between 22 March 2018 and 26 June 2020². I shall refer to this charge as the “member of unlawful society charge”.

The five proceeded charges are set out in Annex A.

The two TIC charges

The two TIC charges were for offences under s 6 of the Protection from Harassment Act, Cap 256A for using abusive words against two different police officers on 23 February 2020 at about 4.15am and 4.30am respectively at or around Block 755.

The TIC charges are set out in Annex B.

The statement of facts

The accused admitted without qualification to the statement of facts (“SOF”) which formed the basis of his conviction. The SOF is reproduced below except for the attachments which consisted of supporting documents such as the medical reports of the injured police officers and photographs of their injuries. 1. The accused is Muhammad Fiqkri Jaffri (“Fiqkri”), a 28-year-old Singaporean male bearing NRIC No: XXX. He was an odd-job worker at the material time of the offence. 2. The co-accused is Muhammad Farhan Jaffri (“Farhan”), a 28-year-old Singaporean male bearing NRIC No: XXX. He is the accused’s twin brother and has since been dealt with for his involvement in this offence. 3. The parties involved are: a. Sergeant Chong Jia Wei (“Sgt Chong”), a 27-year-old Singaporean male. b. Staff Sergeant Tity Sumarni Bte Abd Ghani (“SSgt Sumarni”), a 35-year-old Singaporean female. c. Sergeant Muhammad Irfan Bin Misran (“Sgt Irfan”), a 22-year-old Singaporean male. d. Sergeant Charmaine Tan (“Sgt Charmaine”), a 27-year-old Singaporean female. 4. The four involved parties are all police officers attached to Nanyang Neighbourhood Police Centre as a Ground Response Officers. At the time of the offence, the victims were in their police uniform and conducting patrol duties. The four police officers will be referred to collectively as the “Police Officers”.

FIRST INFORMATION REPORT

5. On 23 February 2020 at around 4.00 am, Farhan was having an argument with his wife at the void deck of Block 755 Jurong West Street 74, Singapore. As there was a commotion, a member of the public called the police and the Police Officers were dispatched to the incident location to conduct checks.

Facts relating to first charge DAC-904101-2020 (section 333 r/w section 34 Penal Code)

6. Investigations revealed that the accused and Farhan had been sharing a bottle of “Smirnoff” whisky together at their home located at #XXX of Blk 755 Jurong West Street 74 at around 1.30am on 23 February 2020. At about 3am, whilst the accused and Farhan were drinking, Farhan’s wife arrived at their home and quarreled with Farhan. The accused did not notice what they were quarrelling about. As the accused’s parents were already sleeping, the accused told Farhan and his wife to go to the void deck to continue quarrelling so as not to wake their parents up. Farhan and his wife then went to the void deck to continue their argument. 7. When the Police Officers arrived at the incident location at around 4.03 am in response to the call from the member of the public, they saw Farhan and his wife and observed that his wife was crying. SSgt Sumarni went forward to speak to Farhan, asking them if they were alright. Instead of answering SSgt Sumarni’s queries, Farhan started hurling vulgarities at SSgt Sumarni. The accused heard Farhan’s shouts from the void deck and left his home to go downstairs via the staircase. 8. As the Police Officers were engaging Farhan, the accused came down to the void deck from a nearby staircase. He immediately approached the Police Officers aggressively and pointed his finger in the Police Officers’ faces while demanding to know what was wrong as they were speaking with Farhan. At the same time, the accused told Farhan and his wife to go back to his unit located on the second floor, while gesturing aggressively at the Police Officers and telling them to “zip” their mouth and “shut up”. After some time, Farhan relented and left the void deck, but continued to hurl abusive language at SSgt Sumarni as he went up the staircase. 9. After Farhan left, the accused aggressively pointed his index finger towards the Police Officers faces and asked them police officers “what’s wrong?” repeatedly. SSgt Sumarni told the accused to calm down and stated that she was just trying to ask Farhan what had happened between his wife and him. The accused told SSgt Sumarni that this was a matter between Farhan and his wife and demanded for the Police Officers to not interfere. 10. During this entire time, the Police Officers told the accused to “relax” and kept explaining that they were simply concerned about Farhan’s wife, who was teary eyed. However, the accused not only refused to calm down, he got increasingly agitated at the Police Officers. Sgt Chong informed the accused that they just wanted to know what happened earlier between Farhan and his wife. Sgt Irfan also informed the accused that they were not there for the accused. SSgt Sumarni also explained to the accused that they saw Farhan’s wife crying and simply wanted to know what was happening. Instead of calming down, the accused continued to act aggressively towards the police officers, pointing at their faces and repeatedly telling them that it was a relationship issue between Farhan and his wife, that there was “nothing” and that the accused would “handle” the situation. Both SSgt Sumarni and Sgt Irfan told him “ok”. The accused continued however to approach Sgt Irfan aggressively, asking him again if he was ok with the accused’s suggestion. Sgt Irfan backed away from the accused in an attempt to de-escalate the situation and told the accused “can, no problem”. 11. At this point, Farhan returned and shouted at the Police Officers, hurling vulgarities at SSgt Sumarni. SSgt Sumarni tried speaking with Farhan to explain that she was just asking Farhan why his wife was crying earlier. Farhan however continued shouting vulgarities at SSgt Sumarni. 12. The accused then grabbed Farhan on the back of his neck and attempted to get Farhan’s attention, as Farhan was still shouting at the Police Officers. Farhan told the accused he did not like Sgt Chong’s face. The accused then asked Farhan repeatedly if he wanted the accused to “shoot” Sgt Chong, whilst holding up a fist. The accused meant that he wanted Farhan to tell him if he wanted the accused to punch Sgt Chong. 13. Suddenly, at around 4.08 am, the accused turned to Sgt Chong, who was standing behind him, and punched Sgt Chong, a public servant in the discharge of his duty, once in the face with his right fist with the intention to cause grievous hurt. The punch caused Sgt Chong to fall to the ground and his spectacles to fall off. Having...