End the Death Penalty Now!
Web posted at: 5/23/2007 8:30:19
Source ::: AFP
Tan Chor Jin, nicknamed “One Eyed Dragon”, arriving at the magistrate’s court in Singapore for his trial last February. He was sentenced to death, yesterday, for killing a nightclub owner in a rare gangland-style shooting in Singapore. (AFP)
SINGAPORE • A man nicknamed “One Eyed Dragon” was sentenced yesterday to hang for killing a nightclub owner in a rare Singapore shooting which the judge likened to an assassination.
Tan Chor Jin, 39, appeared calm and smiled occasionally while the verdict was read.
He was convicted for the murder in February last year of Lim Hock Soon in a case that shocked Singapore, one of Asia’s safest cities.
High Court Judge Tay Yong Kwang said the killing had “the hallmarks of an assured and accomplished assassin.”
Court documents showed Tan, who earned his nickname for being blind in one eye, entered Lim’s flat on February 15 last year.
He tied up Lim’s wife, 13-year-old daughter and domestic helper, looted the family’s valuables and then fired a series of shots into the victim’s face and body.
He fled to Malaysia but was arrested and extradited 10 days later.
Tan represented himself without a lawyer at the trial. After the sentence was handed down, Tan’s only response was to ask the judge for permission to smoke in prison while awaiting his fate.
“They don’t understand what are human rights in the prison, nor allow us to smoke,” Tan said.
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