SINGAPORE : When he had been asked to enter his defence during his trial for the murder of his Indonesian girlfriend, Bangladeshi construction worker Kamrul Hasan Abdul Quddus chose not to take the stand, arguing that the evidence against him was circumstantial.
On Friday, a High Court sentenced the 35-year-old to death on the
basis that the untruths in his police statements during investigations
corroborated the circumstantial evidence, suggesting he had killed
25-year-old maid Yulia Afriyanti on 16 December 2007.
Justice Kan Ting Chiu also noted that the "strong" circumstantial
evidence was "reinforced by the inference drawn from Kamrul's election
to remain silent" during the trial, which ended last February.
Kamrul's account, from his statements, was that he had found Ms
Yulia's naked body stuffed in a cardboard box in a unit of the
Viz@Holland construction site along Queensway Road at 4am.
He claimed that his mind was a blank afterwards and that he did not dare to tell anyone about the discovery.
But Justice Kan ruled, in his grounds of decision, that Kamrul's lies in certain key areas suggested he was guilty.
For instance, contrary to what he had told Ms Yulia and her family
and friends on the night before her death, his mother and brother were
not coming to Singapore.
Phone records also disproved his claim that he had gone to the
worksite to look for Ms Yulia - who was strangled to death shortly
after 4am, according to forensic pathologist Gilbert Lau - after she
gave him a call.
Regarding Ms Yulia's possessions, which were found in his dormitory
locker, Kamrul lied that her watch was a gift he had bought for his
wife back home.
Kamrul likely opted against being cross-examined by prosecutors
because he could not offer any explanation for his contradictory
statements, the judge added.
- TODAY/ms