Oriental Hotel murder

On 25 January 1996, Abdul Nasir was arrested for attempting to rob and murder a taxi driver, and while he was undergoing investigations for this particular case, Abdul Nasir's fingerprints were taken and found to match those found in Fujii Isae and Takishita Miyoko's room. Abdul Nasir later confessed that he was involved in the robbery, and named Abdul Rahman as his accomplice. Abdul Rahman was later found to be in prison serving a 20-month jail sentence for theft.[5] Both men - Abdul Nasir and Abdul Rahman - were charged with murder on 30 January and 31 January 1996 respectively. The crime of murder was considered a capital offence at that time under Singapore law, which warrants the mandatory death penalty.

However, when further investigations revealed that it was solely Abdul Nasir who assaulted and killed Fujii, Abdul Rahman's charge was promptly reduced to one of robbery with hurt, and he pleaded guilty. On 6 June 1996, exactly two years after the incident, Abdul Rahman was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment with 16 strokes of the cane by Judicial Commissioner (JC) Amarjeet Singh.[6] It can be confirmed that since June 2006, Abdul Rahman is out of prison after serving his sentence.

The reduction of Abdul Rahman's charge left Abdul Nasir the sole person to face trial for murder.

The trial of Abdul Nasir started on 24 June 1996.[7] The trial received considerable media coverage on the Japanese news, as well as in the news of Singapore, as Japan was very upset about the incident.[8] At the murder trial, the prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Francis Tseng, argued that Abdul Nasir had intentionally stamped onto the face of Fujii Isae to prevent her from being able to recognise him, and the bloodstained palm print on the wall was due to him balancing himself in order to stamp on the feet. They relied squarely on forensic evidence and Abdul Nasir's police statements (in which he said he stamped his feet) to prove its case, which was in contrast to Abdul Nasir's defence that he accidentally stepped onto Fujii's face. Abdul Nasir's lawyer Subhas Anandan extensively cross-examined the police interpreter who recorded the statements; the female police interpreter admitted on the stand that Abdul Nasir did not say the word "stamp", and instead he said the word "step", but she wrote stamp because Abdul Nasir demonstrated to his police interrogators a stamping action. According to Mr Subhas in his memoir The Best I Could, he wrote that the interpreter conceded that it was not her business to interpret the actions but to interpret what a person said.[8]

At the end of Abdul Nasir's murder trial on 4 July 1996, the presiding judge, Judicial Commissioner (JC) Choo Han Teck accepted Abdul Nasir's defence that he accidentally stepped onto Fujii's face while he rejected the prosecution's argument that Abdul Nasir intentionally stamped onto Fujii's face to kill her; he cited in his judgement that the physically big-sized Abdul Nasir's height of 1.8 m and weight of 76 kg, compared to Fujii Isae's height of 1.5 m and weight of 51 kg, made it possible for an accidental step being the causation of the injuries on the victim's face. JC Choo also said that the prosecution's case was also not strong enough to prove the charge of murder beyond a reasonable doubt. For this, Abdul Nasir was acquitted of murder, and he was instead convicted of the other charge of robbery with hurt. Consequently, Abdul Nasir was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment and 18 strokes of the cane.[9][10] The prosecution appealed against Abdul Nasir's acquittal, in which the appeal was heard before three judges of Appeal: Justice M. Karthigesu, Justice Goh Joon Seng and Justice Thean Lip Ping (also known as L P Thean).[11][12] However, by a split decision of 2–1, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal based on the majority decision in October 1996, with two judges - Justice Karthigesu and Justice Goh - upholding the decision of the High Court while Justice Thean dissented. This marked the first time a split decision was made in an appeal regarding a murder case in the Court of Appeal.[13][14]

The conclusion of the murder trial did not mark an end to Abdul Nasir's ordeal, as he had to go back to court to face a kidnapping charge, which he committed during the time of his remand. On 3 February 1996, Abdul Nasir, together with his cellmate and drug trafficker Low Theng Gee (who was later executed for drug trafficking) briefly kidnapped two police officers for a ransom of a car, two guns, money and eight bullets before being subdued by the police reinforcements. Under Singapore law, kidnapping for ransom carries a sentence of either life imprisonment or death (the offender is also liable to caning if he was not sentenced to death); the possible guilty verdict of death for this particular crime made Abdul Nasir once again facing the gallows. Once again, Abdul Nasir engaged his original lawyer Subhas Anandan in his defence.

Abdul Nasir was found guilty of kidnapping on 3 March 1997. On the same day of Abdul Nasir's conviction itself, despite the urgings of the prosecution to sentence Abdul Nasir to death, High Court judge T. S. Sinnathuray sentenced Abdul Nasir to life imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane (some sources suggested Abdul Nasir received 6 strokes of the cane, not 12), given the fact that it was Low Theng Gee who masterminded the kidnapping plot and took upon himself to demand a ransom, and that Abdul Nasir did not harm the hostages or make any threats on their lives. However, Justice Sinnathuray ordered that the life sentence should run consecutively with the 18-year imprisonment sentence which Abdul Nasir received for robbing Fujii, making it a total of 38 years' imprisonment. At that time, life imprisonment in Singapore was defined as a jail term of 20 years, entitled with the usual practice of one-third remission for good behaviour.[15]

Despite the advice of his lawyer Subhas Anandan to not appeal (because Subhas felt that the sentence was fair and there is no death penalty involved), Abdul Nasir took upon himself to file an appeal for the two jail terms to run concurrently, but it was dismissed on 20 August 1997. However, in the course of the appeal, Chief Justice Yong Pung How also decided that life imprisonment should be considered as a term of incarceration for the remainder of a convicted prisoner's natural life, with the possibility of parole after serving at least 20 years, instead of a jail term of 20 years. He also ruled that this amendment will apply to future cases after 20 August 1997. Abdul Nasir was not affected by this amendment, hence his life term remained as a 20-year prison sentence, and he would still be spending 38 years behind bars.[16][17]

If he served with good behaviour, Abdul Nasir will possibly be released sometime between May 2021 to November 2021 after serving at least two-thirds of his overall sentence (25 years and 4 months), depending on when he started to serve his sentence. By then, Abdul Nasir would be at least 52 years old.

The appeal of Abdul Nasir, titled "Abdul Nasir bin Amer Hamsah v Public Prosecutor [1997] SGCA 38",[18] was since regarded as a landmark in Singapore's legal history as it changed the definition of life imprisonment from "life" to "natural life" under the law.

This case was re-enacted in a Singaporean crime show named True Files. It first aired as the eleventh and penultimate episode of the show's third season on 3 January 2005.[19] This case was also recorded in Subhas Anandan's memoir The Best I Could, which features his early life, career and his notable cases.[8] The memoir was adapted into a TV show of the same name, which runs for two seasons. Abdul Nasir's case was re-enacted and aired as the sixth and final episode of the show's first season (though some aspects of the case were altered for dramatic purposes).[20]