Yahoo Finance Bangladeshi worker guilty of murdering Indonesian lover in Geylang hotel, sentenced to death
SINGAPORE — A man accused of killing his girlfriend in a hotel room in Geylang was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by the High Court on Monday (14 December).
The presiding judge rejected the defence by Ahmed Salim that he acted on a grave and sudden provocation upon hearing Nurhidayati Wartono Surata allegedly uttering humiliating words to him.
“On the totality of the evidence adduced before me, I am satisfied that the accused did have the intention to cause death. I find that the evidence clearly shows the accused to have acted on 30 December 2018 in accordance with a premeditated plan to kill the deceased,” Judicial Commissioner Mavis Chionh said of Ahmed, a 31-year-old Bangladeshi working as a painter.
She convicted Ahmed of the murder charge under Section 300(a) of the Penal Code, which carries the mandatory death sentence.
Ahmed had claimed that Nurhidayati, an 34-year-old Indonesian domestic helper, had thrown jibes at him when they met for the last time at Golden Dragon Hotel in Geylang on 30 December 2018, spurring him into killing her.
After coming to Singapore in 2010, Ahmed began dating Nurhidayati in May 2012 following a chance encounter along the street.
The relationship remained rocky, with Nurhidayati also seeing other men, despite Ahmed claiming that he “put a ring on her finger” twice. Ahmed said during the trial that even though Nurhidayati had cheated on him, he kept returning to her because he loved her.
The prosecution said Ahmed had cleared his bank account on the day before he met Nurhidayati and brought along a rope to strangle her on 30 December 2018. At the hotel, the pair had sex and Ahmed failed to persuade Nurhidayati to break up with her new boyfriend. He threatened to kill her and placed a towel around her neck twice, but Nurhidayati managed to remove it.
When it became clear that Nurhidayati was not getting back together with him, Ahmed placed the towel around her neck again and tightened it until she stopped moving.
This was after Nurhidayati had allegedly told him that she would send him a video of herself with another man. During his trial, Ahmed had testified that his lover had told him, “He is better than you, he is better than you in the hotel... he is better in bed... he is better financially. If you don’t believe... next week I will go with him, will make a video and show you.”
However, JC Chionh found that no such words had been said based on the evidence. She noted that Ahmed had not mentioned the alleged humiliating remarks in his multiple police statements or in his interviews with a psychiatrist.
“His allegations about these utterances only surfaced one-and-a-half years after the killing of the deceased when he was providing his account of events to the defence psychiatric expert,” said the judge.
“I find his explanations for his failure to mention the humiliating words in the police statements and to (the psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health ) to be far-fetched. I disbelieve these explanations. I agree with the prosecution that the accused’s story of the humiliating words was precisely that: a story concocted more that a year after the event to give him a basis for claiming he had been provoked.”
Even assuming that the victim had uttered such humiliating remarks, the judge found that Ahmed’s actions were premeditated, rendering any loss of self control “quite irrelevant”. The judge noted that Ahmed’s actions showed no loss in self control.
Ahmed had first strangled the victim with a towel, before taking a rope - a drawstring from his jacket - from his pocket and tightening it around Nurhidayati’s neck with several knots. When he heard her emitting sounds from her mouth or nose, he pressed a towel against her face until it stopped. He then forcefully twisted her neck from left to right to make sure she was dead.
While Ahmed had been diagnosed with mild to moderate adjustment disorder, JC Chionh noted that he was able to perform his job well, pursue recreational activities, and engage in sexual activities. The defence’s psychiatrist had agreed that outside of Ahmed’s relationship issues, he was not impaired by his mental condition.
“Despite the relationship problems with (Nurhidayati), the evidence of the accused’s conduct before during and after the killing showed no substantial impairment of his mental responsibility. Neither his decision making ability nor his ability to exercise self control was impaired.”
JC Chionh rejected Ahmed’s allegation that he had been suicidal during the act, and found that the defence of diminished responsibility was not made out.
“On the contrary, as I have noted, his actions before during and after the killing demonstrated premeditation, cogent planning, and methodical execution.”
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