WATCH | INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE: DOJ drops complaint against 30 of 44 kidnap suspects in Singaporean kidnap case

Foreign suspects of kidnap syndicate under escort by police. Reuters / Romeo Ranoco

The Department of Justice on Tuesday dropped from the complaint resolution some 30 names out of 44 initial suspects in the kidnapping incident of a Singaporean woman by a suspected loan shark syndicate – by reason that they have not been proven to have played a personal role in the kidnapping.

Basically, this was a case of insufficiency of evidence against the suspects dropped from the initial charge list. It appeared that they happened to be staying at the same condominium and were among those rounded up.

Detail from DOJ resolution regarding personal criminal responsibility.

According to DOJ, those dropped from the list “have not been identified by the complainant as part of the group that kidnapped her. Not an iota of evidence was presented to show that they conspired with the alleged kidnappers … Not even a single act can be imputed against them.”

The 44 foreigners, mostly Chinese and Malaysia, were initially implicated in the botched abduction of Singaporean Wu Yan in the wake of a loan shark scam that unraveled after she found herself in a casino losing streak and was victimized by the syndicate.

Wu Yan lost money playing at Solaire Casino on July 13, and the syndicate pounced, offering her playing chips on a rather painful loan arrangement.

She was then subjected to alleged torture and detained illegally to force her to pay back the syndicate.

The narrative in the DOJ document was quite telling. According to the complainant, in the evening of July 13, 2017, while she was playing Baccarat at Solaire, respondents Goh Kok Meong and Ng Yu Meng approached her to say they knew she was a high roller at Singapore Marina Bay Sands. The next day, when the two saw her losing, they offered to introduce her to a lender who could provide PhP1 million in chips, on condition that he gets a 25% commission on her winnings and that she pays back the loan next day. Her passport had to be handed over as collateral. “Thereafter, even though she was not winning, she paid Three Hundred Thousand Pesos commission. At the end of July 16, 2017, she lost all her chips.”

Detail from Department of Justice documentation of the kidnap case.

After the complainant was rescued by law enforcement officers in collaboration with local authorities, only the following names were deemed included in the preliminary investigation:

1) NG YU MENG
2) GOH KOK MEONG
3) CHEN JING WANG
4) CHEN CHENG FENG
5) DENG KONG ZHI
6) OU MIN
7) CHEN JIA YANG
8) CAI SI YANG
9) CHENG ZAI ZHENG
10) ZHENG WEI XIONG
11) WU SHI ZHU
12) HUANG LIFANG
13) LI XIANG HU
14) OU FANG

The other foreigners were dropped, namely:
1. LI JIA LONG
2. PAN WEI JUN
3. CHEN CHAO YI
4. CHEN GUO XIONG
5. WANG MIN
6. MENG HAO
7. PAO XI
8. HUAN DONG CHUAN
9. YAN XIAO TAO
10. LIN BING WEN
11. KANG CAI CHUN
12. XIE QING YUN
13. LIN ZHI TIAN
14. LI LIAN DEN
15. QING CHI
16. ZHU CHONG GUANG
17. LIN FENG BIN
18. LIU PENG
19. ZHANG FU XING
20. LI YUN
21. ZENG WEI
22. WANG FEI
23. ZHANG CHENG JIAN
24. LIN CHAO
25. ZOU GUAN BAO
26. RONG YI WANG
27. LI HONG BING
28. YUAN DAN
29. HUAN TIAN PENG
30. LIN YUNG LONG

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