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SINGAPORE : Having spent 18 years in jail for killing a man in Thailand and only recently released after a royal pardon by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Singaporean Teo Chwee Kow will now spend another eight years behind bars here.
He pleaded guilty to slaying another man over a staring incident in the Republic 20 years ago.
On Monday, Justice Choo Han Teck sentenced Teo, 49, to nine years in jail. The sentence was backdated to December last year when he was repatriated from Thailand because Teo has been in remand since.
According to court documents, at about 2.30am on March 1987, Teo cycled past Mr Edy Tan - an Indonesian trader - and his three friends, who were chatting in an Amoy Street back alley after a gambling session. Parking his bicycle a short distance away, Teo walked back to confront Mr Tan and demanded to know why the latter had stared at him.
An argument broke out and a scuffle ensued. During the fight, Teo fell into a drain. He then got up and grabbed a plastic bag containing a knife from a basket on his bicycle and swung it several times at Mr Tan.
Teo fled and Mr Tan - who was slashed on the arms, chest and abdomen - died an hour later in hospital.
On the same day, with the help of a Malaysian friend, Teo escaped to Malaysia and subsequently made his way to Thailand, where he was sentenced to life imprisonment a year later, in 1988, for killing another man there.
In 1997, the Singapore police learnt of Teo's whereabouts from their Thai counterparts.
In his mitigation plea on Monday, lawyer Subhas Anandan pointed out that Teo, who was diagnosed as an alcoholic, was inebriated at the time of the 1987 offence. Also, it was Mr Tan who had struck the first blow, said the defence attorney.
While Mr Anandan stressed that his client was remorseful, Deputy Public Prosecutor Francis Ng said that Teo could have still been at large had the Thai authorities not arrested him.
Teo could have been jailed for up to 10 years or faced life imprisonment for manslaughter.
Outside the courtroom, Teo's sister told reporters that her brother had asked her "not to worry" and that "his jail term would pass very fast".
While she was "very sad" at the sentence, Ms Teo was somewhat glad that she was reunited with her brother, whom the family had not heard from since he fled Singapore.
The family is now divided over the payment of Teo's lawyer fees, totalling $16,500.
Said Madam Teo: "Our parents are dead. The other siblings are now refusing to share the bill. I am at my wits' end." - TODAY
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