Choo Han Teck

Choo Han Teck (born 20 February 1954) is a Singaporean judge of the Supreme Court.

He was formerly a lawyer before his appointment to the court as a judge.

It was revealed in 2021 that Choo was one of the defence lawyers representing Adrian Lim, the infamous Toa Payoh child killer who was executed in 1988 for charges of murdering a girl and boy as ritual sacrifices.

In 1994, Choo also defended Phua Soy Boon, a jobless Singaporean who was hanged in 1995 for killing a moneylender.

Abdul Nasir committed the crime in 1994 with his friend Abdul Rahman Arshad at Oriental Hotel, where they were initially finding a job before deciding to rob two female members of a Japanese tour group.

Both women, Fujii and her friend Takishita Miyoko, were assaulted before Fujii was accidentally stepped onto the face by Abdul Nasir, who lost his balance and fell during his escape from the hotel room, which left behind fatal facial bone fractures that caused suffocation leading to death.

Choo was first appointed Judicial Commissioner in 1995, and later appointed High Court Judge in January 2003.

Choo Han Teck, who then became Judicial Commissioner, presided the trial of Teo Kim Hong, a prostitute charged with stabbing her co-worker Ching Bee Ing to death in August 1995.

After hearing the case for five days in January 1996, Choo found that Teo had intentionally stabbed Ching seven times, such that four of these injuries penetrated her heart and liver and sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature.

Choo therefore found Teo guilty of murder and sentenced her to death.

Teo lost her appeal and she was hanged on 30 August 1996.

Choo heard the case of Abdul Nasir Amer Hamsah, who was accused of murdering a Japanese tourist named Fujii Isae during a robbery.

Abdul Nasir was only caught two years later and stood trial for murder in 1996, while Abdul Rahman, who was eventually found to be in prison for another crime, had ten more years added to his then 20-month sentence, as well as caning of 16 strokes for robbing the tourists.

Despite the prosecution's argument that Abdul Nasir intentionally stamped onto the tourist's face to kill her, Choo Han Teck accepted Abdul Nasir's defence that he accidentally stepped onto Fujii's face, as 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.

Abdul Nasir was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment and 18 strokes of the cane for a lesser charge of robbery with hurt resulting in death.

Choo's decision to acquit Abdul Nasir of murder was later affirmed by the Court of Appeal.

In the aftermath, Abdul Nasir received an additional life sentence with caning of 12 strokes in a separate trial for an unrelated crime of kidnapping two police officers for ransom.

In May 1998, a 40-year-old Sikh prison warden named Jaranjeet Singh was attacked by two Indian men at a coffee shop in Geylang, and one of the attackers smashed a beer bottle and fatally slashed Jaranjeet's throat with the broken glass, causing Jaranjeet to bleed to death.

38-year-old S Nagarajan Kuppusamy, the man who directly killed Jaranjeet, was charged with murder and stood trial before Judicial Commissioner Choo Han Teck in October 1998.

During the same month of Nagarajan's trial, Choo judged that Nagarajan had violently murdered Jaranjeet over a minor dispute and described the attack as an "outright assault against a defenceless man".

He also judged that Nagarajan had intentionally cut Jaranjeet's throat with the broken beer bottle, such that the injury deliberately caused was sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature.

Therefore, Choo found Nagarajan guilty of murder and sentenced the former lorry driver to death.

Nagarajan was hanged on 23 July 1999 after his appeal against Choo's verdict was rejected.

Nagarajan's accomplice, 38-year-old Saminathan Subramaniam was found guilty of a lesser offence of causing hurt with a dangerous weapon and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment and six strokes of the cane in a separate trial.

In December 1999, JC Choo Han Teck was set to hear the cases of three people, who were alleged to be the conspirators of a former police officer's murder.

The three people were Julaiha Begum, Loganatha Venkatesan and Chandran Rajagopal.

Julaiha was alleged to be the mastermind of the plot to murder her estranged husband T Maniam over property disputes.

Venkatesan and Chandran were the ones who took charge of beating Maniam to death outside his house in Phoenix Garden, and they successfully done so five months before their trial.

In fact, there was a fourth person named Govindasamy Ravichandran, who was roped in to kill Maniam but he declined to continue proceeding with the plan and left the group.

Ravichandran was the sole witness in the trial against the trio, and his testimony was met with strong denials by the three whose lawyers tried to discredit Ravichandran's testimony.

It was on 14 March 2000 when Choo made a final judgement.

Choo found that Ravichandran was a credible and truthful witness despite the situation being solely his own word against all three, because Ravichandran was speaking with “the assuredness that comes only from a person who has been where he said he has been, and done what he said he has done”, and he gave a very detailed and complete account, and he was able to recall even the most minor details, which were supported by other minor witnesses and other objective evidence.

He also rejected the defences of the three suspects as both Venkatesan and Chandran were being recognised and seen at the scene of crime by three witnesses, which made them unable to pinpoint their hired driver "Mani" (who knew about the murder plot and drove them to where Maniam lived prior to his murder) as the one who killed Maniam or claim that they came to visit Maniam for other purposes, and also the clear evidence of Julaiha's motive to murder her husband.

For this, the three were convicted of murder and sentenced to be executed in Changi Prison, which they did on 16 February 2001 after the trio exhausted all their respective avenues of appeal against the death sentence.

In December 2001, a 19-year-old Indonesian maid named Muawanatul Chasanah was found dead in her employer's flat after she endured starvation and physical abuse, which caused her to die from peritonitis due to a ruptured stomach.

Her employer, 47-year-old tour guide Ng Hua Chye, was responsible for her abuse and death, and he was arrested for murder after he surrendered at a police station and confessed to both abusing and killing his maid.

The case was then known to be one of the worst cases of maid abuse in Singapore.

Ng was later convicted of five charges of culpable homicide and maid abuse, after the prosecution reduced the murder charge against Ng on the request of Ng's lawyer Subhas Anandan.

JC Choo Han Teck, who heard the case in July 2002, noted during the sentencing phase that some of the old scars and injuries found on Chasanah were not attributed to the cruelty of her employer.

Choo was appointed President of the Military Court of Appeal of the Singapore Armed Forces in November 2004.