Abdul Kahar Othman

Abdul Kahar bin Othman (1954 – 30 March 2022) was a Singaporean drug trafficker who was found guilty in 2013 of two charges of trafficking a total of 66.77 grams of heroin in Singapore, and later sentenced to death by the High Court in February 2015.

After the end of his trial, Abdul Kahar tried to appeal the verdict but the courts dismissed his legal challenges and upheld his death sentence.

It was not until seven years later when Abdul Kahar's execution date was finally scheduled on 30 March 2022.

Despite the appeals by human rights activists to the Government of Singapore to commute his sentence, Abdul Kahar was hanged as scheduled at Changi Prison, and he was 68 years old at the time of his execution.

Abdul Kahar was the first person to be hanged in Singapore during the COVID-19 pandemic in the country itself.

Born in Singapore in 1954, Abdul Kahar bin Othman was the eldest son in a family of seven children, and he grew up in Henderson.

His father, who served in the British army, died at age 40 during Abdul Kahar's childhood years, leaving his mother as the sole breadwinner and caregiver of her children.

She had to work low-wage contract jobs (including at construction sites and shipyards) to make ends meet.

As there were times the family had to starve due to lack of income and insufficient food, Abdul Kahar and his younger brothers Abdul Mutalib and Abdul Jabar resorted to stealing food from the coffee shops and they did not receive much education in their younger days.

Abdul Kahar was described as a good son and sibling who took care of his mother and younger siblings.

In his adult years, Abdul Kahar married an unnamed woman, but the couple had no children.

He even served a sentence of ten years' preventive detention from 1995 to 2005 due to his recalcitrance and long criminal record.

Preventive detention in Singapore is a special type of imprisonment reserved for recalcitrant offenders aged at least 30 years old and have at least three previous convictions since turning 16, and this detention order, which may last between seven and 20 years, do not allow an early release on parole for good behaviour.

During his frequent periods of incarceration, Abdul Kahar reportedly did not receive much support and rehabilitation to enable him to assimilate into society completely.

After his release in February 2005, Abdul Kahar found difficulty in adjusting to the outside world as a result of his criminal record and he himself spending most of his life in prison than outside.

He was later employed by his brother Abdul Mutalib, who operated a furniture business.

During his time at his brother's company, Abdul Kahar became a diligent and hard-working employee.

He also formed a good relationship with his nieces and took care of his mother faithfully.

However, after Abdul Mutalib sold his business, Abdul Kahar was once again jobless.

At the time of Abdul Kahar's arrest in 2010, his wife was residing in Indonesia.

Abdul Kahar first broke the law at around 18 years of age, and he had been going in and out of prison for various offences, mostly drug crimes.

Abdul Kahar's heroin addiction from his youth also led to him spending time at the state-run drug rehabilitation centres for several times.

Five years after he was released from prison, Abdul Kahar re-offended and was once again arrested on 6 July 2010 for another offence, this time for capital drug trafficking.

A search was conducted by the officers from Central Narcotics Bureau and a total of 26.13g of diamorphine (or pure heroin) was found in Abdul Kahar's motor car, which he drove from Boon Lay Way into Jurong Town Hall Road before he encountered the narcotics police.

A second search was conducted at Abdul Kahar's flat (where his brother and mother also lived), and another 40.64g of diamorphine were also found inside Abdul Kahar's bedroom.

Thus, Abdul Kahar was brought to court for two charges of drug trafficking.

for trafficking 26.13g of diamorphine and 40.64g of diamorphine respectively.

As the total amount of drugs exceeded the legal minimum of 15g, Abdul Kahar would face the mandatory death penalty if found guilty under the laws of Singapore.

In his account to the police and court, Abdul Kahar stated that he knew a man named Latif in Malaysia, and befriended him after a few meetings.

He said that Latif met him on the same day he was arrested, at the void deck of his residential block, and received a request from Latif to help him keep a bag, which he claimed had something related to his work in Malaysia.

In the first occasion, Abdul Kahar kept a dark blue bag in his bedroom after receiving it from Latif; the bag contained the 40.64g of diamorphine found in his home.

In the second occasion, Abdul Kahar once again received another bag, a red coloured one which also contained what Latif claimed also had to do with his work; the red bag contained the 26.13g of diamorphine that the narcotics police discovered in his motor car.

From this, Abdul Kahar tried to claim that he had no knowledge of the drugs and was deceived by Latif in helping him to safekeep the bags.

However, there were evidence which proven that Abdul Kahar had knowledge of the drugs and there were also a total sum of over $100,000 in cash found in his home, indicating these to be the criminal proceeds he received from trafficking diamorphine.

There were evidence which also showed signs of the drugs being re-packed by Abdul Kahar for the purposes of trafficking.

After standing trial in the High Court, Abdul Kahar was found guilty of drug trafficking on 27 August 2013, but sentencing was postponed in light of the newly enacted death penalty laws more than seven months earlier, in order to certify if Abdul Kahar was merely a drug courier.

The reforms of the death penalty laws stated that a drug convict would not face the death penalty and only receive life imprisonment on the condition that he/she was only acting as a courier or suffering from a mental illness.

Two months later, the High Court judge Choo Han Teck ruled in a follow-up judgement that Abdul Kahar was indeed a courier and gave him the benefit of the doubt, which would spare him from a death sentence.

However, Justice Choo chose to postpone his sentencing till a later date.

Subsequently, the prosecution filed an appeal against the October 2013 verdict, which was simultaneously heard with another prosecution's appeal against the case of another drug trafficker Chum Tat Suan, who was also judged as a courier by the same judge.