Second ex-Changi Prison officer jailed for sharing inmates' confidential details with gang leader

SINGAPORE — A former prison officer of 10 years’ standing has become the second one in the past month to be jailed for sharing confidential information on Changi Prison inmates with another prisoner.

Muhammad Zul Helmy Abdul Latip was understudying the other prison officer, Muhammad Fattahullah Mohd Nordin, when he committed the offences.

Both men later admitted to leaking these details in hopes that the prisoner, who was known to be disruptive, would not create problems for them during their night shifts.

Zul Helmy was sentenced to seven weeks' jail on Friday (Sept 9).

The 33-year-old pleaded guilty to two charges of unauthorised access to computer material under the Computer Misuse Act, with another similar charge taken into consideration for sentencing.

A fourth charge of breaching the Official Secrets Act was withdrawn.

Fattahullah, 38, was sentenced to 10 weeks’ jail on Aug 24. Both he and Zul Helmy resigned from the Singapore Prison Service after their offences came to light.

HANDWRITTEN NOTE WAS FOUND

The court heard that Zul Helmy joined the Singapore Prison Service in 2010 after serving his National Service.

In September 2020, he was posted to a cluster in Changi Prison that included inmates placed in the administrative segregation regime. Inmates are sent there for various reasons, including poor conduct and gang-related activities.

They stay in individual cells and their conduct is reviewed about every three to four months, before a supervisor decides if they should remain or not.

When Zul Helmy was posted to the cluster, he met Abdul Karim Mohamed Kuppai Khan, also known as Dio.

The inmate was serving a 15-year jail sentence for helping someone else to possess drugs for trafficking purposes. He was also supposedly a headman of the Ang Soon Tong secret society.

Similar to what he did with Fattahullah, Abdul Karim used his cell intercom to contact Zul Helmy at the housing unit control centre.

On one occasion in October 2020, he asked the prison officer for an inmate’s age.

Zul Helmy deliberately did not reply over the intercom because there was another officer there, and he knew the other inmate was a member of a rival gang.

He subsequently checked the inmate’s age by accessing his case file in the Prison Operations Rehabilitation System II (Ports II) system. He then waited for his colleague to leave before calling Abdul Karim to pass the information to him.

He helped the inmate out again about a week later by passing him the mobile number of another prisoner’s girlfriend.

On Oct 30 that year, Abdul Karim’s cell was searched.

A handwritten note with two addresses and two contact numbers was discovered there, which led to the discovery of Zul Helmy and Fattahullah’s offences.

In a statement on Friday, the Singapore Prison Service said it immediately referred the case to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau for investigation.

The two prison officers were also interdicted from service, pending the outcome of the investigation. They subsequently resigned.

For each offence of unauthorised access to computer material, both men could have been jailed for up to two years or fined up to S$5,000, or punished with both.

In its statement, the Singapore Prison Service also said that it takes a very serious view of any wrongful access and communication of confidential information.

"Any staff found to have done so will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law, including being charged in court, as was done in this case," it added.