SCDF deserter jailed, caned for 2003 fatal gang attack

Feb 9, 2011

SCDF deserter jailed, caned for 2003 fatal gang attack

By Khushwant Singh

A WEEK after Muhammad Sazali and his friends were involved in a gang attack in Clarke Quay in 2003 where a youth died, he escaped into Malaysia by walking along two water pipes at Marsiling.

Seven years later, he turned himself in. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 21/2 years in jail and six strokes of the cane for rioting while armed with a knife. Muhammad, now 29, was also jailed a year and three months for deserting the Singapore Civil Defence Force since April 2003.

Fourteen accomplices involved in the attack have been dealt with. They received sentences ranging from probation and reformative training to prison terms of six months to 11/2 years as well as caning.

The group called themselves the Ubi Boys, after the neighbourhood they hailed from, and on Wednesday, a district court heard a blow-by-blow account of how the group planned and carried out an attack.

At about midnight on April 16, four of the group went down to Jams The Club at Clarke Quay, where they knew the rival group would be. They were soon joined by the rest of the Ubi group, most of them arriving in two vans.

A fight, involving knifes and screwdrivers, then erupted between the two groups. The target of the Ubi group was Mr Suhaimi Salleh, then 22. He was not injured but his friend Mohamad Sadik Senin, 19, suffered multiple slash and stab wounds and died at the Singapore General Hospital at about 3.50am.

The cause of death was determined as acute bleeding of the aorta and forensic evidence indicated that the injury was likely to have been inflicted by a screwdriver stabbed into his back and into the heart.

In May, Muhammad decided to surrender himself to the Malaysian police, and was jailed four months for entering the country illegally. He was released on Aug 20 last year and handed over to the police here.

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Fugitive jailed 45 months, caned six strokes
By Shaffiq Alkhatib | Posted: 09 February 2011 1653 hrs
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SINGAPORE: A 29-year-old man, who was on the run for nearly seven years after being involved in a fatal gang fight, was sentenced on Wednesday to 30 months' jail and given six strokes of the cane for the offence.

Muhammad Sazali was a full-time national serviceman with the Singapore Civil Defence Force when he took part in the brawl.

He was sentenced to an additional 15 months' jail as he deserted his duties and remained absent without leave since the day of the incident.

Muhammad Sazali and at least 14 others attacked 19-year-old Mohamad Sadik Senin at Clarke Quay between 2.40am and 3am on April 17, 2003.

The teenager died at the Singapore General Hospital about an hour later.

Muhammad Sazali had admitted that he used a knife to slash the teenager.

The court heard that none of Mohamad Sadik's 14 convicted attackers used weapons in the fight.

But there were unknown others involved in the fight, who are still at large, that could have done so.

And they could have wielded the weapon - believed to be a screwdriver - which delivered the fatal wound.

Deputy Public Prosecutor, Eugene Lee, said that Mohamad Sadik died due to a stab wound which pierced his heart and the injury was likely to be inflicted by the tool.

Muhammad Sazali went into hiding after the fight.

The tall, slim man sneaked into Malaysia from Marsiling about a week later by walking along two huge water pipes on the Causeway.

Muhammad Sazali stayed with relatives there and remained on the run until he finally decided to surrender himself to the Malaysian police in April last year.

He was charged with entering the country illegally without a passport and spent four months behind bars in a Malaysian prison.

Muhammad Sazali was released and handed over to Singapore police at the Woodlands Checkpoint on August 20.

The court heard that 14 of his accomplices have already been dealt with in court in 2003 and 2004.

Most of them were sentenced to between six and 24 months' jail. 11 of them were sent to jail, two to a reformative training centre and one put on probation.

For rioting, on top of the caning, Muhammad Sazali could have been jailed up to seven years.

And for remaining absent without leave from his national service, he could have been jailed a maximum of ten years.

- AFP/fa