Preventive detention, caning for man who threw Molotov cocktail at police officers

SINGAPORE — A 37-year-old man who flung a lit Molotov cocktail at police officers was on Friday (July 28) sentenced to seven years’ preventive detention, and three strokes of the cane.

Lai Yew Han had earlier been found guilty of intimidating, and voluntarily causing grievous hurt to, police officers, in two separate incidents last year.

Preventive detention means Lai, who is unemployed, will have to serve the full jail term, with no remission for good behaviour.

The court heard that around 5pm on March 27 last year, the police were alerted to a call regarding smoke coming out from a rubbish chute at a block of flats in Marine Parade.

When he arrived at the scene, Station Inspector (SI) Foo Chuen Chong started to make enquiries with the residents there about the smoke incident.

When he reached Lai’s flat on the second floor, the officer spoke to him through the window.

Lai claimed to be “tua pek kong” (grand-uncle), and that he made heroin and “ice”, or methamphetamine, in his flat.

After alerting his operations team about his findings, SI Foo returned to Lai’s flat. This time, the man had closed the gate and pushed a coffee table against it to prevent people from entering his flat.

Lai then went into a room and re-emerged with a clear bottle, containing an unknown liquid, corked with a piece of white cloth. He also had with him a saucer with a lit flame, the court heard.

In a statement after the incident, Lai admitted that the bottle contained motorcycle oil.

“As the accused held these items in his hand, he uttered threatening words...to (SI Foo) in a mix of Hokkien and Mandarin...which means, ‘If you all try to enter by force, I will perish together with all of you’,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Wen Hsien.

Lai also made a similar threat to Inspector Royce Kiang Heng Hui later, when the officer tried to speak with him. The police officers later left the flat.

In the second incident on May 28 last year, Lai threw a lit Molotov cocktail towards police officers, one of whom was armed with a shielf, attempting to enter his flat. No one was injured in incident.

The police had gone to his flat after receiving a call from a woman believed to be Lai’s sister, who said that he had “gone crazy”.

When they arrived, the officers heard a commotion inside the flat. Lai then took the Molotov cocktail bottle from a table in the living room, and gestured towards Staff Sergeant Muhammad Shaiful Rizal Ibrahim, as though Lai was about to fling the bottle at him.

In the stand-off, the officers tried asking Lai to put the bottle down, but to avail.

The court heard that Lai, who was still holding on the bottle, had told one officer: “If you want to try, I will also try”.

Later, as it became apparent that Lai was “clearly uncooperative and aggressive”, more police officers arrived, including Sergeant Daniel Kwok Wei Jie, who was the only Divisional Tactical Team officer present trained to use a shield.

Sgt Kwok decided to use the shield as the officers were afraid that Lai might throw the bottle at them.

Sgt Kwok was moving into the flat with the shield, when he saw Lai lighting the Molotov cocktail about 2 metres away. Lai then flung the bottle directly at the shield Sgt Kwok was carrying, resulting in a “burst of flames” after the bottle hit the lower part of the shield.

Footage from the police’s body-worn cameras, which was played in court, showed the flat’s doorway and parts of the corridor being engulfed in flames.

Sgt Kwok, taking another shield, then approached Lai and arrested him.

During his three-day trial in June, Lai, who was unrepresented, tried to defend himself by claiming that the charges against him were “false”.

He also argued that he was trying to protect his mother and sister, and claimed that the officers at his door could have been “villains” disguised as police officers.

Calling Lai’s statements “ludicrous”, the prosecution said: “The accused has shown an utter lack of remorse in claiming trial and advancing spurious defences.”

In sentencing Lai, District Judge John Ng said it was clear he was a “menace” to the safety and security of those around him.

Preventive detention is usually meted out to recalcitrant offenders, and can involve a jail term of seven to 20 years.