TODAY reports: They decided against calling the police, and instead discarded their friend’s body at a staircase landing and stole his belongings.
SINGAPORE: When their friend died while they were at the home of another friend, Karim Arshad and Juwita Mohd Yusof decided not to call the police as they were wanted for drug offences. Instead, they dumped the body of Ramdan Ishak at a staircase landing — but not before taking his belongings.
The bizarre case was heard in court on Monday (Oct 19) as Karim, 42, and Juwita, 36, pleaded guilty to dumping their friend’s body and other offences.
The three friends had visited the home of Ms Ratnawati Samad on Jun 2, as the latter was distraught after her husband had been arrested for drug activities. The trio wanted to console her and decided to stay the night.
Early the next day, Ramdan, then 37, went to the toilet and stayed inside for a period of time. Karim went to check on his friend and found him sitting on the toilet bowl, seemingly asleep. Karim woke Ramdan up and noticed he was weak. As he helped Ramdan out of the toilet, he saw a syringe peeking out of the back pocket of his pants, but Ramdan ignored the questions asked. Karim later threw it into the rubbish chute.
Hours later, at about 9.30am, Juwita woke up and discovered that Ramdan was dead. She told Karim, but they decided against calling the police as they were wanted by the Central Narcotics Bureau. They also kept it from Ms Ratnawati, who was pregnant at the time. Karim and Juwita pocketed Ramdan’s Samsung mobile phone, sling bag, pen and earphones before carrying his body out of the flat and dumping it between the sixth and seventh floors of the block. Both were arrested the next day.
Karim faced four charges for stealing, depositing a corpse, and taking two drugs — monoacetylmorphine and methamphetamine — on Jun 4. He was sentenced to eight years and four months in jail, and six strokes of the cane. Karim, whose sentence will be backdated to Jun 6, has been in and out of jail since 1997 for a string of drug and theft offences.
Juwita’s five charges include stealing, depositing a corpse and failing to show up for urine tests on three occasions in May while under a two-year supervision order for drug offences. She will be sentenced on Oct 30, after District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim agreed to defer sentencing for about two weeks so that her mother, who lives in Johor Baru, can attend the hearing.
It was not mentioned in court what Ramdan died of, or what the syringe contained.
Read the original TODAY report here.
-TODAY/cy
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/duo-convicted-of-dumping/2204492.html
SINGAPORE: When their friend died while they were at the home of another friend, Karim Arshad and Juwita Mohd Yusof decided not to call the police as they were wanted for drug offences. Instead, they dumped the body of Ramdan Ishak at a staircase landing — but not before taking his belongings.
The bizarre case was heard in court on Monday (Oct 19) as Karim, 42, and Juwita, 36, pleaded guilty to dumping their friend’s body and other offences.
The three friends had visited the home of Ms Ratnawati Samad on Jun 2, as the latter was distraught after her husband had been arrested for drug activities. The trio wanted to console her and decided to stay the night.
Early the next day, Ramdan, then 37, went to the toilet and stayed inside for a period of time. Karim went to check on his friend and found him sitting on the toilet bowl, seemingly asleep. Karim woke Ramdan up and noticed he was weak. As he helped Ramdan out of the toilet, he saw a syringe peeking out of the back pocket of his pants, but Ramdan ignored the questions asked. Karim later threw it into the rubbish chute.
Hours later, at about 9.30am, Juwita woke up and discovered that Ramdan was dead. She told Karim, but they decided against calling the police as they were wanted by the Central Narcotics Bureau. They also kept it from Ms Ratnawati, who was pregnant at the time. Karim and Juwita pocketed Ramdan’s Samsung mobile phone, sling bag, pen and earphones before carrying his body out of the flat and dumping it between the sixth and seventh floors of the block. Both were arrested the next day.
Karim faced four charges for stealing, depositing a corpse, and taking two drugs — monoacetylmorphine and methamphetamine — on Jun 4. He was sentenced to eight years and four months in jail, and six strokes of the cane. Karim, whose sentence will be backdated to Jun 6, has been in and out of jail since 1997 for a string of drug and theft offences.
Juwita’s five charges include stealing, depositing a corpse and failing to show up for urine tests on three occasions in May while under a two-year supervision order for drug offences. She will be sentenced on Oct 30, after District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim agreed to defer sentencing for about two weeks so that her mother, who lives in Johor Baru, can attend the hearing.
It was not mentioned in court what Ramdan died of, or what the syringe contained.
Read the original TODAY report here.
-TODAY/cy
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/duo-convicted-of-dumping/2204492.html
