Kho Jabing

Kho Jabing (4 January 1984 – 20 May 2016), later in life Muhammad Kho Abdullah, was a Malaysian of mixed Chinese and Iban descent from Sarawak, Malaysia, who partnered with a friend to rob and murder a Chinese construction worker named Cao Ruyin in Singapore on 17 February 2008.

Kho Jabing was born on 4 January 1984, the eldest of two children and the only son in his family.

His mother Lenduk Anak Baling reportedly gave birth to him in a taxi while on the way to the hospital.

Kho grew up in Ulu Baram, Sarawak, living in a longhouse with his parents and younger sister Kho Jumai (born on 20 May 1988).

His younger sister, with whom Kho shared a close bond with, described him as a loving older brother, never having fought with his teachers, friends or any others.

He was also said to be active, helpful, hard working and responsible.

Kho left school after finishing Primary 6 because his family was not well-off and could not afford to send him to secondary school to further his studies.

After he left schooling, Kho worked at his family's plantation, and later on as a technician for two years in Miri.

After this, in 2007, Kho decided to leave Sarawak and move to Singapore to find employment, in hopes of earning a higher income to provide a better life for his family.

While in Singapore, he would make phone calls daily - once in the morning, and once in the night - to his mother.

On the afternoon of 17 February 2008, Kho Jabing, then 24 years old and an employee of a rag and bone company, together with four others - Galing Anak Kujat, Vencent Anak Anding, Alan Anak Ajan, and Anthony Anak Jaban - agreed and intended to rob two Bangladeshi construction workers and Vencent's colleagues from Vencent's workplace in Tiong Bahru.

However, before the plan could be executed, the two workers had left with their boss.

The five remained in Tiong Bahru for drinks.

After that, at about 7 pm, they all travelled to Geylang for more drinks, and for this, they had a quarrel over whether they should commit robbery and murder in Geylang in view of their aborted robbery attempt earlier that day.

Later on, Kho and Galing, then a shipyard worker, separated from the group.

They walked for some distance before spotting two Chinese men walking along a pathway in an open space near Geylang Drive, forming a plan to rob the pair.

The two Chinese men - mainland Chinese nationals and construction workers Cao Ruyin (Traditional Chinese: 曹如銀; Simplified Chinese: 曹如银) and Wu Jun (Traditional Chinese: 吳軍; Simplified Chinese: 吴军) - were walking together in that same area after dinner when they were unknowingly targeted by the two Sarawakians.

Kho picked up a fallen tree branch, and used it to hit one of the men, Cao, from behind.

As Kho began to assault Cao, Galing went after Cao's companion Wu and assaulted him, but the 44-year-old managed to escape from Galing with minor injuries.

However, Cao was continually struck on the head by Kho.

Galing later joined in by using his belt to hit Cao.

The assault eventually stopped and the pair also took away Cao's mobile phone.

The unprovoked attack left Cao with 14 skull fractures, in which its severity also caused injuries to the brain.

Cao was subsequently rushed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital where doctors operated on him twice to treat his head injuries, but despite the efforts of the doctors, Cao did not recover from these injuries and slipped into a coma.

Six days later, on 23 February 2008, Cao died at the age of 40.

After Cao's death, forensic pathologist Teo Eng Swee conducted an autopsy on the deceased construction worker, and Teo later certified that it was the severe head injuries that killed him.

After robbing Cao Ruyin and Wu Jun, Kho Jabing and Galing Kujat regrouped with their three friends and they together sold Cao's mobile phone for S$300.

The five men each received S$50, and the remaining S$50 was used to pay for their drinks and food.

Nine days later, police investigations based on the retrieved phone records from Cao's handphone led to the arrests of both Kho and Galing on 26 February 2008 (3 days after Cao's death).

They were charged with murder under Section 300(c), which was a hanging offence and thus carried the mandatory death penalty under Singapore law at that time.

Subsequently, their three friends - Vencent Anak Anding, Alan Anak Ajan, and Anthony Anak Jaban - were also arrested in connection to their attempted robbery of the Bangladeshi workers.

The trio were all later found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment between 3.5 and 6 years and caning between 12 and 16 strokes of the cane in June 2009, a month before both Kho and Galing stood trial for murder.

When a police officer contacted them about Kho's arrest and involvement in the murder, Kho's family and friends in Sarawak were stunned and shocked to hear that Kho was involved in such a violent crime, given the non-violent personality they knew of him.

While his accomplice was eventually jailed and caned for robbery, Kho Jabing was convicted of murder and sentenced to death on 30 July 2010, and lost his appeal on 24 May 2011.

Later, when the changes to Singapore's death penalty laws took effect in January 2013, Kho Jabing was granted a re-trial, and thus have his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane on 14 August of that same year.

However, on 14 January 2015, the life sentence was overturned and the death sentence was reinstated on Kho Jabing once again upon the prosecution's appeal.

Kho's younger sister said to a newspaper in 2015 about the news of her older brother's arrest, "Since young, he is not fierce or naughty at all. He is good. When we were growing up, he has never committed a crime, so we don't know why this happened to him."

After a lengthy appeal process, and despite the public appeals for mercy on his life, Kho Jabing was finally put to death by long drop hanging at 3.30 pm on 20 May 2016 for his crime.

The prosecution's appeal in the case of Kho Jabing was also a landmark in Singapore's legal history, setting the main guiding principles for all judges in Singapore to decide where the discretionary death penalty is appropriate in future murder cases, which directly or indirectly affected both the sentencing and appeal outcomes of some murder cases that occurred in Singapore.

Other than the death penalty issues in Singapore, Kho Jabing had also had an effect on the requirements of the Singaporean courts to reopen concluded criminal appeals and cases, which made its first effect on an unrelated capital case on 2 August 2017, leading to the acquittal of 34-year-old Nigerian citizen and alleged drug trafficker Ilechukwu Uchechukwu Chukwudi on 17 September 2020.