Alone again after son is jailed again

[Brian]

Alone again after son is jailed again

October 12, 2012 - 1:37am

By: Syahirah Anwar

TNP PHOTO: Kelvin Chng

Madam Asnah Ismail (above) has had enough pain to last her a lifetime - and she's 88 years old.

Even more heartbreaking, the cause of her pain are her sons. Two of them ended on death row for the murder of a woman during a robbery in 2005.

Then, after six years in prison, her youngest child, Ismil Kadar, 44, was cleared of the crime and set free in July last year. Muhammad Kadar, her other son, is still on death row.

But less than a year later, the frail mother of 10 was heartbroken again as she watched Ismil being hauled away by Central Narcotics Bureau officers on May 30 after he was found to possess 3.7g of heroin.

He was jailed seven years and given six strokes of the cane yesterday for the offence.

Read the full report in The New Paper on Friday (Oct 12).

 

[KINGFALCON]

Seems like our crime rate is rising again. Christmas is coming.

 

[Brian]

Ex-death row inmate of 6 years back in jail for drug abuse

Published on Oct 11, 2012

Mr Ismil Kadar, who spent six years in prison including two years on death row, walked out of prison a free man on July 5, 2011, after the Court of Appeal acquitted him of the 2005 murder of Madam Tham Weng Kuen. However, he was arrested by Central Narcotics Bureau officers at his Boon Lay Avenue flat on May 30 on suspicion of having consumed a controlled drug. -- ST PHOTO: JOYCE FANG

By Elena Chong

A man who spent six years behind bars, including two on death row, was packed off to jail on Thursday for taking drugs.

Ismil Kadar, 44, was given a new lease of life in July last year after the Court of Appeal cleared him of any offence.

He and his younger brother, Muhammad, now 37, were convicted in 2009 of murdering a 69-year-old housewife at her Boon Lay flat while robbing her on May 6, 2005.

During their appeal, the apex court threw out his brother's appeal against his murder conviction but cleared Ismil, whose charge by then had been reduced to one of robbery with hurt.

Read the full report on The Straits Times on Friday (Oct 12).

 

[Akuma]

He's back in jail after wasting chance for starting a new life

Ismil (right) with lawyer R. Thrumurgan (left), who had hired the former drug addict as a dispatch assistant after proving his innocence in a robbery case in which a woman was murdered. In May this year, Ismil was busted in his flat by Central Narcotics Bureau officers for taking drugs.

By Elena Chong, Court Correspondent

The Straits Times
Sunday, Oct 14, 2012

HE SAID he had tried his best to keep to the straight and narrow, but things had not turned out that way.

Yesterday, former death row inmate Ismil Kadar was jailed for seven years and given six strokes of the cane for consuming drugs.

This came 15 months after he was dramatically freed from prison in a landmark case, and after making headlines for how he was on the road to a more normal life.

Before he was sentenced, Ismil, 44, who had been in remand since June, was asked by District Judge Eddy Tham if he had anything to say. The bespectacled man looked solemn and said through a Malay interpreter that he would not repeat the offence.

When Judge Tham asked him why he had returned to drugs after he was given a new lease of life, Ismil said: "I have tried to do... my very best. I have planned for the best, but it did not work out."

The judge asked: "What could you have done? What else could be done to help you avoid this mistake?"

"I will prove to Your Honour that I will not do all these things again. I will not hurt the many people who have placed their trust in me," said Ismil.

The judge said: "I think it is quite clear there were a lot of people who helped you. But at the end of the day, you must learn to help yourself."

None of Ismil's adult relatives was in court. A woman with a baby in a pram was the only one he seemed to know in the gallery. His mother later told The Straits Times that they were probably his fiancee and son.

On May30 this year, Ismil - who had also been jailed and caned in 1999 for taking drugs - was busted by Central Narcotics Bureau officers from Jurong police station in his Boon Lay Avenue flat for suspected drug consumption. Urine samples were taken and later found to contain heroin.

Investigations showed he had taken "ubat", the Malay term for medicine, but it is also the street name for drugs such as heroin.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Michelle Yeo said he had bought the ubat for $100 "from his usual peddler, an unidentified male Chinese known as Ah Chong, at Boon Lay Market".

He usually consumed a packet over four to five days, and had begun taking it a few months earlier "due to boredom". He would get "a high for a few hours" after smoking it.

The former drug addict is no stranger to prison. In August 1999, he was jailed for five years and caned three times for taking morphine.

In 2005, he and his brother were arrested for the murder of their 69-year-old female neighbour during a robbery. They were convicted of the crime in 2009 and sentenced to death.

Before the Court of Appeal heard the case, the prosecution amended the charge to robbery with hurt. The highest court in the land later acquitted him on the robbery charge.

In a strongly worded judgment, the appeals court also highlighted "serious lapses" by police and prosecutors, and said certain evidence had been provided by the prosecution to the defence later than it should have been.

The Court of Appeal eventually found that his brother, Muhammad Kadar, now 37, tried in the same case, had been solely responsible for the murder.

Ismil then began a new chapter in his life. He was hired as a dispatch assistant by lawyer R. Thrumurgan, who had fought his case pro bono for six years.

DPP Yeo yesterday said the six years Ismil spent in prison had not taught him a lesson.

Mr Amarick Gill, the lawyer representing him in the latest case, said his client had succumbed to his old habits after having been wrongfully incarcerated for six years. He said: "Everybody before Your Honour ought to have known better. This is one of those situations he ought to have known better."

A second charge of being in possession of 0.18g of heroin was taken into consideration.

But as this was Ismil's second drug-taking offence, he was liable for enhanced punishment under the long-term imprisonment scheme.

Yesterday, he received the minimum sentence. He could have been given the maximum sentence of 13 years in jail and 12 strokes of the cane.

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BACKGROUND STORY

EXCHANGE BETWEEN DISTRICT JUDGE EDDY THAM AND ISMIL KADAR

Judge: What could you have done? What else could be done to help you avoid this mistake?

Ismil: I will prove to Your Honour that I will not do all these things again. I will not hurt the many people who have placed their trust in me.

Judge: I think it is quite clear there were a lot of people who helped you. But at the end of the day, you must learn to help yourself.

ISMIL'S MOTHER, MADAM ASNAH ISMAIL, ON WHETHER SHE SUSPECTED HE HAD GONE BACK TO DRUGS

How would I know if he took drugs? The room door was closed... It is not like I can observe him all the time.

 

[Akuma]

Mum says son was a good person when he wasn't taking drugs

Madam Asnah said she was neither sad nor disappointed at the turn of events.

By Maryam Mokhtar
The Straits Times
Sunday, Oct 14, 2012

SINGAPORE - THE lawyer who had taken on Ismil Kadar's case for free for six years - and then given him a job after he was acquitted - did not want to comment.

Ismil's sister was angry and disappointed, and did not want to say much either.

Only Ismil's 87-year-old mother was prepared to speak at length about him after he was sentenced for drug offences. Looking calm, Madam Asnah Ismail said in Malay yesterday: "When he wasn't taking these things, he was a good person."

Her son, an odd-job worker, had been jailed for taking drugs in 1999.

In 2005, he was held for suspected murder, convicted, then released last year. Now that he is back in jail, she said: "What can I say. It is just his fate."

She added that after his first arrest for taking drugs, she had told him to "save up for a marriage instead of spending it on drugs".

Ismil was arrested in her flat in Boon Lay on May 30 this year for suspected drug consumption. He was the only one of her 10 children to be living with her.

Asked if she suspected that he had returned to his old habits, the widow said: "How would I know if he took drugs? The room door was closed... It is not like I can observe him all the time."

She said the family rarely had guests over, and Ismil spent most of his time after work at home.

But, she added, he had also found himself a fiancee, and the woman had since delivered a boy. She said she has not been in contact with them since his arrest.

She said she was neither sad nor disappointed at the turn of events.

She believes his life has been mapped out by a higher power. "There is no use for anger. I can do nothing but pray to God for all that is good... I carried him in pregnancy... whether he is bad or good, I love him," she said.

Meanwhile, her younger son, Muhammad Kadar, 37, is on death row for the murder of a neighbour in 2005.

Not everyone has been as accepting of Ismil's latest tangle with the law.

His older sister, who lives in Jurong West and declined to be named, said: "Of course we were mad. We thought he had changed and was 'clean' already, and we had supported him all this time."

She added that she had not spoken to or seen him for a while as "we have been too busy to visit".

Mr R. Thrumurgan, 38, the lawyer who worked pro-bono for six years to get Ismil acquitted, also did not want to comment on the case yesterday.

He had hired Ismil as a dispatch assistant in his company last year so that his former client would have a job, and also to keep an eye on him.

Ismil would usually send Mr Thrumurgan a text message when he returned home to let him know he was okay.

On the day of the drug raid in May, the lawyer did not receive a text from him.

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[Kohliantye]

I feel sorry for this elderly and frail Ma'Chik. Wonder how she gets along in her lonely life. Would have been better if she was in OZ.

Monthly pensions, free medical check-ups and many more other fringe benefits.

It is the job of the government to provide a "duty of care" to it's citizens. Clearly this has no been done for so many years. OZ has 20 million plus people and can afford all these. Wonder why tiny Singapore (originally population of 2 million plus) is NOT able and deliberately refuses to provide such care.

Can the Government of Singapore be hauled to Court in a citizens summons under the Law of Torts?

Those members in these Forum with the legal know-how are urged to contribute such ideas.

Let us make Singapore a Nation That Truly cares For Her people.