Murder of Chi Tue Tiong

On the afternoon of 28 June 2003, 68-year-old Chi Tue Tiong, who worked as a caretaker of rental apartments in Geylang, Singapore, was found dead inside apartment 39B. He had been discovered by Tan Poh Geat, who employed him, after she became concerned that he had missed his usual meals. Chi was found lying in a pool of blood with injuries to his head and arms, and his drawers appeared to have been tampered with. A bloodstained wooden pestle was recovered in his bedroom, along with bloodstained shoeprints on the floor.

A forensic autopsy conducted by Dr Teo Eng Swee determined that Chi had suffered at least nine blows to the head with a blunt instrument, resulting in extensive skull fractures and brain injuries that caused death within minutes. Police investigation traced the pestle to a Thai masseuse who rented a room in a nearby apartment; she said it had often been borrowed by an Indonesian couple who had moved out of the apartment on the same day Chi was killed. Investigators identified the woman as an Indonesian national who left Singapore for Batam by ferry the day after the murder, and her boyfriend as Zailani bin Ahmad, a 35-year-old Singaporean citizen. Zailani's shoes, recovered from a flat in Telok Blangah, were found to have bloodstains matching Chi's DNA profile, and the shoeprints matched those found at the crime scene. Zailani was arrested on 30 June 2003 and charged with murder on 1 July 2003. His girlfriend was also charged in absentia but was never extradited from Indonesia, as no extradition treaty existed between Singapore and Indonesia, and she did not return voluntarily.

At his High Court trial beginning 1 March 2004, Zailani argued he suffered diminished responsibility after overdosing on prescribed sleeping pills, claiming he lost consciousness during parts of the killing and could not recall using the pestle. The prosecution's psychiatric expert testified that Zailani was fully aware of his actions at the time, and the pathologist testified the injuries were concentrated on the head in a manner inconsistent with a purely frenzied, unaware attack. On 15 March 2004, Justice Kan Ting Chiu rejected the diminished responsibility defence, found that Zailani and his girlfriend shared a common intention to commit burglary and had armed themselves with the pestle, and convicted Zailani of murder. He was sentenced to death, the mandatory penalty for murder in Singapore.

Zailani's appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 23 November 2004. Chi Tue Tiong was survived by at least three children. His girlfriend, who was also implicated in the killing, has never been arrested or tried for her alleged role.