Convict goes free after successful appeal

SINGAPORE — A man, who was not represented by a lawyer, had his conviction for heroin consumption overturned on Friday (March 24), after a High Court judge found “serious credibility issues” with the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officer who had raided his house.

The cause: One of the medications allegedly seized from the man’s house on the day of his arrest was really prescribed five days after the raid, while he was out on bail.

Mr Lemmont Tan Beehunt, 57, was arrested at home by CNB officers on Jan 13 last year, after failing to report for his urine tests, raising suspicions that he was taking drugs.

He has a record of drug abuse, having previously been convicted of taking heroin in June 2010 and sentenced to five years and nine months’ jail.

After his arrest last January, Mr Tan’s urine samples tested positive for a metabolite of heroin, and following a trial, he was jailed 7.5 years last November.

He was spared caning as he was above 50 years old.

Appealing against his conviction and sentence without a lawyer on Friday, Mr Tan said that the drugs in his system may have come from the Chinese medicine that he had bought from an unknown sex-drug peddler at a coffee shop.

He took five of the “shiny, black pills” for pain relief, after having undergone an operation for a nerve disorder in both arms, he told the court.

However, CNB officers said that they had collected and photographed all the medication found in Mr Tan’s house during his arrest.

The bottle of black pills were not found.

During his trial last year, District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan said that the Chinese medicine he mentioned was a “fabrication”, adding that they had never been produced as evidence.

On Friday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Star Chen reiterated that Mr Tan had failed to prove that the alleged contaminated medication existed.

Mr Tan also had not given details as to what these medication were and when he had eaten them.

Mr Tan maintained his innocence. He pointed to loopholes in the timeline of events given by the prosecution and raised questions about the investigations against him.

For example, one of the medications seized by CNB on Jan 13 was prescribed by a hospital only on Jan 18, Mr Tan told the court.

In declaring him innocent, Justice Chan Seng Onn said: “(Mr Tan) has raised serious credibility issues about the officer seizing the medication.

“He has created reasonable doubt as to the suppression of (information on) some Chinese medication.”

Justice Chan said that the Chinese medication may have contained traces of drugs eventually found in Mr Tan’s urine.

The presence of controlled drugs in the pills’ content could be why it worked well as a painkiller, he added.

On the prosecution’s point about the Chinese medication’s origins, Justice Chan agreed with Mr Tan that it would be difficult to track down the peddler to give evidence at this time.

Responding to TODAY’s query, CNB said that it would study the comments and observations made by the judge.

“CNB conducts regular reviews of investigative processes as part of our internal work process. As part of the review, we will take into consideration the findings and grounds of judgment of past cases,” its spokesperson said.