Bangladeshi to hang

[Zhou Yü]

Singapore
Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Jan 8, 2010

Bangladeshi to hang

By Selina Lum



Kamrul, who worked at the site, was arrested and charged with her murder. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

A BANGLADESHI construction worker involved in a love triangle with an Indonesian maid was on Friday sentenced to death after he was convicted of murdering her. Kamrul Abdul Hasan Quddus, 35, looked shocked on hearing the guilty verdict, which came almost a year after his High Court trial in February last year. The naked body of his on-off girlfriend, Ms Yulia Afriyanti, 25, was found stuffed in a cardboard box in a unit of an uncompleted condominium in Queensway on Dec 16, 2007. Kamrul, who worked at the site, was arrested and charged with her murder. He told police that she was already dead when he found her at the worksite but was too frightened to tell anyone. During the trial, it emerged that Ms Yulia was also seeing another man during their on-off relationship. DNA tests showed Kamrul had sex with her before her death; his fingerprints were also found at the scene. But the defence tried to argue that the evidence was circumstantial and did not prove he killed her. Kamrul chose not to testify in his defence.

[scoobyhoo]

better hang him immediately. don't waste our taxpayers money to feed him.

[diversifyx2]

better hang him immediately. don't waste our taxpayers money to feed him.

Nah, what happend if he is angmoh?? Diff. story right??

[Yoshitsune Minamoto]

He chose to stay silent at trial



by Teo Xuanwei
05:55 AM Jan 09, 2010

SINGAPORE - When asked to enter his defence during his trial for the murder of his Indonesian girlfriend, Bangladeshi construction worker Kamrul Hasan Abdul Quddus chose not to take the stand, arguing that the evidence against him was circumstantial.

On Friday, a High Court sentenced the 35 year old to death on the basis that the untruths in his police statements during investigations corroborated the circumstantial evidence suggesting he had killed 25 year old maid Yulia Afriyanti on Dec 16, 2007.

Justice Kan Ting Chiu also noted that the "strong" circumstantial evidence was "reinforced by the inference drawn from Kamrul's election to remain silent" during the trial, which ended last February.

Kamrul's account, from his statements, was that he had found Ms Yulia's naked body stuffed in a cardboard box in a unit of the Viz@Holland construction site along Queensway Road at 4am. He claimed that his mind was a blank afterwards and that he did not dare to tell anyone about the discovery.

But Justice Kan ruled, in his grounds of decision, that Kamrul's lies in certain key areas suggested he was guilty. For instance, contrary to what he had told Ms Yulia and her family and friends the night before her death, his mother and brother were not coming to Singapore.

Phone records also disproved his claim of having gone to the worksite to look for Ms Yulia - who, according to forensic pathologist Gilbert Lau, was strangled to death shortly after 4am - after she called him.

Kamrul likely opted against being cross-examined because he could not offer any explanation for his contradictory statements, the judge added.

Teo Xuanwei