Murder of Lee Kok Cheong

According to the statement of Too Yin Sheong at his trial, he had met Professor Lee at a coffeeshop named Irene's Coffee in Ang Mo Kio; soon after that, the professor gave Too his telephone number and invited Too to visit his home. When Too did visit, the professor made overtures to have sexual intercourse with him, which he declined. Before leaving, Too noticed that the Professor had valuable antiques in his home.[3]

When Too mentioned this incident to two Malaysian friends—Ng Chek Siong (黄哲祥 Huáng Zhéxiáng; alias "Koo Neng") and Lee Chez Kee (李哲奇 Lǐ Zhéqí; alias "Kim Beh"), Lee suggested robbing the professor. He also suggested that Too arrange a meeting on the pretext of introducing Lee to the professor, so that the group could gain entry to Professor Lee's house.

On December 12, 1993, the three went to Professor Lee's house in a car with Ng as the driver. Too and Lee entered the house, where they tied the Professor up, then stabbed and strangled him to death, although both of them would pin the blame on one another for killing the victim.[4][5][6] They ransacked his house and stole his ATM card, which Too later used to withdraw money from the Professor's bank account. The Professor had lived alone, and his body was found in his house in Castle Peak Avenue in Kallang only two days later in a partly decomposed state. The murder of Professor Lee happened on the same day as the Tan Kee Fan murder case, where a woman of the same name was murdered at another location in Singapore.[7]

For a long time, his killers remained at large. Only an anonymous tip-off, two years after the murder, enabled police to make progress in solving the case. Too Yin Sheong and Ng Chek Siong were arrested in December 1997 and May 1998 respectively.[8][9][10] Too was charged for murdering the Professor,[11] and sentenced to death for the "cold-blooded" murder by Judicial Commissioner Chan Seng Onn on 28 August 1998;[12][13][14][15] he lost his appeal in November 1998,[16][17] and was hanged on 30 April 1999.[18] Ng, who was originally charged with murder,[19] got off more lightly— he was convicted of robbing the Professor's home and additionally committing theft and cheating, and he was sentenced to eight years in jail, in addition to ten strokes of the cane.[20] Ng was released by October 2003 and he had returned to Malaysia since then.

Lee Chez Kee fled Singapore to Malaysia shortly after the murder. In June 2005, he was arrested by the Royal Malaysian Police for theft, and jailed.[21] On 18 February 2006, Singapore police announced that they had extradited him back to face trial for the murder, having made arrangements with Malaysian police to extradite him upon his release from prison. He was charged in court on 19 February 2006,[22][23][24] and sentenced to death on 10 October 2006.[25][26] His appeal was dismissed on 12 May 2008 by a 2-1 majority, in a landmark judgment that clarified the doubt of admission of hearsay evidence by a dead accomplice under the Criminal Procedure Code and Evidence Act, as well as the finding of a common intention under the Penal Code.[27][28][29] Subsequently, Lee Chez Kee was hanged on an unspecified date, sometime after the dismissal of his appeal.

• Capital punishment in Singapore