Singapore jails woman who threatened to kill her tenants, says report

A woman in Singapore has been jailed for eight weeks after she threatened to kill her tenants with a 33 cm knife. According to a report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Monday (May 15), Li Kim, a Chinese national, pleaded guilty in March to one charge of criminal intimidation of the tenants, a couple. The report said that a second similar charge was also taken into consideration during the sentencing of Li, 39.

As per court documents, at 6.30 am on October 20, 2021, the couple- Soo Zu Liang and Teo Yuen Yee, then 26 and 30 years old respectively, were sleeping in their room when they were woken up by Li, who came back home drunk. Liang and Yee heard loud banging sounds, with Li shouting from the living room.

They weretenants in Li’s flat in which they had been renting one room for about four months under an agreement struck with the woman's husband.

Yee heard Li mention that she was holding a knife and would wait for the two of them to leave their room to “kill them both”. Though the door was locked, Yee was worried for her and Liang's safety and the couple called the police.

Security camera footage showed that after Li retrieved the 33-cm long knife from the kitchen, she was then seen pacing around the house. She waved the knife on several occasions while issuing threats such as “I will stab whoever comes out”.

The woman was also seen aggressively knocking on the couple’s room door with the knife. She was subsequently arrested. Following her arrest, the investigation revealed that Li had a blood alcohol level of 88mg/100ml.

After Li pleaded guilty, District Judge Marvin Bay called for a report to assess if the 39-year-old was suitable for a mandatory treatment order- a community sentencing option offered to offenders suffering from mental conditions that contributed to their offence.

But a report from the Institute of Mental Health found no such contribution.

Li's lawyer Amarjit Singh, meanwhile, urged the court to consider a lighter sentence for his client. Singh pointed out that the report did not find any causal link to the incident from any diagnosed condition, and some weight ought to be given to Li’s behaviour during that period as she was experiencing depressive episodes.

But District Judge Bay said the incident was “beyond dispute” given the existence of CCTV footage.

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