A CABBY told a Romanian court via videolink on Thursday that the Caucasian passenger he picked up along Woodlands Road at 3am two years ago 'seemed suspicious'. Mr Neo Hock Beng, 52, said the man appeared anxious and directed him to drive to several destinations.
The taxi driver said he was told to drive to Bukit Timah Road, then to Cluny Road and then to the Grange Heights condominium. As he found this rather strange, he printed out the receipt and kept it.
Silviu Ionescu, 51, the former Romanian charge d'affaires in Singapore, is now on trial in a Bucharest court for manslaughter, causing physical injuries and making false statements over his alleged involvement in two hit-and-run accidents on Dec 15, 2009. One pedestrian died and two more hurt in the accidents near Bukit Panjang and Ionescu left for Romania three days later.
Cross-examined by Ionescu, Mr Neo denied suggestions that he went to the media before going to the authorities. Asked how the police knew it was him, the cabby said that his taxi could have been filmed by the closed-circuit television cameras at Grange Heights.
Another taxi driver, Mr Mohd Salihen Wahab, 41, recognised Ionescu in newspaper reports as the man he had seen walking away from a damaged Audi car, with diplomatic 'CD' plates, at about 3am on the day of the accidents. Mr Salihen said he had a good look at the man in a black suit walking along the deserted Sungei Kadut Avenue.
-- ST
A WITNESS in Singapore identified the driver of a hit-and-run car via videolink from a five-man line-up in a Romanian court on Friday.
Mr Ricarno Izaan Lachica, 22, a full-time national serviceman, said Silviu Ionescu - the country's former charge d'affairs here - was behind the wheel of the embassy car.
The Singaporean, who witnessed the accident in the early hours of Dec 15, 2009, testified that he had identified the driver a day after the accident from a large number of photographs shown to him by two police officers. He said that there was no one else present then but added that the proceedings had been videotaped. Under cross-examination by Ionescu, Mr Lachica denied he had seen a picture of the Romanian in The New Paper before he met the police.
Ionescu, 51, has been on trial in a Bucharest court since Oct 5, 2010 for manslaughter, causing physical injuries and making false statements. The former diplomat, who fled Singapore for home, is alleged to have hit three pedestrians while driving a black Audi A6 belonging to the Romanian mission in 2009, and to have left the scene. The accidents left one pedestrian dead and two more injured.
Ionescu, who returned to Romania three days after the accident, denies he was the driver and said the car had been stolen while he was working at the embassy at about the time of the accident. But Mr Chan Kian Ann, 44, the former workshop manager with Premium Automobile Singapore - where the damaged car was sent to - said that he had not heard of an Audi car being stolen here. His colleague Boo Seng Yak, 56, an assessor, told the court that the car's locking system was in working condition and appeared 'intact'.
This is the last day of the videolink proceedings. Before transmission ended, Judge Andras said that the judicial inquiry in Romania would continue collecting other evidence and probably recall some witnesses.
-- ST