Maid who murdered elderly Singapore employers imprisoned for 20 years in Indonesia
- Khasanah had been working for Chia Ngim Fong and Chin Sek Fah for less than a month when they were beaten to death in their Bedok Reservoir home
- She fled by ferry back to Indonesia, a coroner’s inquiry heard, but was arrested and given a life sentence that was reduced on appeal
She was eventually arrested by Indonesian authorities and in 2018 was sentenced to life imprisonment in Indonesia, before the Jakarta High Court reduced the sentence on appeal to 20 years.
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These details were revealed on Tuesday on the first day of the coroner’s inquiry into the deaths of Chia Ngim Fong, 79, and his wife Chin Sek Fah, 78. The couple were found lying motionless and tied up in their flat at Bedok Reservoir Road on the afternoon of June 21, 2017.
Khasanah, who goes by one name and is now aged about 43, had been working for the couple for less than a month. She left Singapore at 1.20pm that day on a ferry at the Harbourfront Cruise Centre, said investigating officer Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday. The police received a call for help at about 3.40pm.
Testifying in the coroner’s court, Mahathir revealed that Chia’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head while Chin died from similar injuries to her head and chest.
Khasanah was arrested on June 28, 2017 – a week after returning to Indonesia. She was overheard talking to someone on her mobile phone about the murder, Mahathir told the court.
Previous media reports stated that a member of the public tipped off the police after hearing Khasanah talking about the murder in an internet cafe. She was also overheard saying that she wanted to “repent and stay in a religious school”.
Indonesian police arrested her at the Hotel Kuala Tungkal, in central Sumatra’s Jambi province. They then contacted authorities in Singapore after confirming her involvement in the deaths.
Items stolen from the Bedok Reservoir flat – previously reported to include two iPhones, a laptop, cash of different currencies, a jade bracelet and a gold necklace – were recovered from the hotel room. Bloody fingerprints were lifted in the master bedroom toilet in the flat. The prints were Khasanah’s but a DNA report showed that the blood belonged to Chia, Mathathir said.
After her arrest, Khasanah gave two statements to the Indonesian police recounting the events leading up to the deaths. Mahathir said that Khasanah admitted to assaulting her employers in a bid to flee from the flat and also confessed to preparing string with the intention to tie her employers up before escaping. However, he did not elaborate further on these statements in open court.
She was charged and convicted in Indonesia for premeditated murder and theft. While she received a life sentence in May 2018, she appealed against it and is now serving a reduced sentence of 20 years, which was handed down in August that year.
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Khasanah was prosecuted in Indonesia for her crimes in Singapore because of the “personaliteit” principle. This means that any Indonesian arrested in Indonesia for an offence committed abroad will be dealt with there instead of being extradited.
None of the couple’s family members were present in court on Tuesday. State Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam will issue her findings on Wednesday.
Read the original article at Today Online
