SINGAPORE — He was away from the scene calling his girlfriend when his fellow gang members attacked two men at St James Power Station last March, killing one of them.

But after the incident, Muhammad Hisham Hassan, 27, put up his co-accused in the Yishun flat he rented from his godmother.

On Tuesday (Jan 2), he was sentenced to 18 months’ jail after pleading guilty to harbouring one of the co-accused, Muhammad Khalid Kamarudin, 22, in the flat for 31 hours.

Another charge of conspiring with Khalid and three others to voluntarily cause hurt to Satheesh Kumar Manogaran – the dead man – and his cousin Naveen Lal Pillar on the morning of March 12 last year was taken into consideration.

Hisham is the first of five men arrested for the attacks to be dealt with. The cases of Khalid, Muhammad Faizal Md Jamal, 23, Shawalludin Sa’adon, 27, and Mohd Firdaus Abdullah, 20, are pending. They are facing the murder charge.

The dispute leading to the death of 35-year-old Satheesh arose over a “trivial argument” at Postbar at St James Power Station, the court heard.

Shawalludin, who was a waiter at Postbar, and Satheesh, a patron, had argued about waitering and the former claimed that Mr Naveen had tried to punch him.

The two men arguing had had alcohol before the dispute.

Shawalludin was then asked by his manager to step outside. Angered by the incident, he messaged and called Hisham, asking him to rally members of the Sio Kun Tong secret society to join the fight.

Hisham agreed and, on his way to Postbar, sent out a message to all the secret society’s members.

Khalid, who was at another bar at the time, responded to the call. The 22-year-old, who had a knife on him, recruited Faizal along the way.

The four men met at around 5am that day, and agreed to cause hurt to Satheesh and Mr Naveen.

Their plans were briefly disrupted when approached by two police officers, but they resumed after the officers left to attend to another fight.

Hisham walked away to call his girlfriend, and the rest of the group approached Satheesh and Mr Naveen and proceeded to stab, kick and punch them.

Mr Naveen suffered cuts on the back of his head, while Satheesh succumbed to the stab wounds to his head and back at Singapore General Hospital.

After failing to reach his girlfriend, Hisham returned to the group. He saw Mr Naveen stumbling around covered in blood and Satheesh lying on the ground.

He messaged Shawalludin and Khalid, telling them Satheesh had died. He also told Shawalludin to “run far far”, the court heard.

After they fled, Khalid and Faizal had sought shelter with Firdaus, a fellow gang member.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Andre Chong told the court that Hisham asked Firdaus to bring Khalid and Faizal to the flat he rented from his godmother.

There, the men and their girlfriends discussed the incident. Faizal left after an hour, while Firdaus and Khalid remained.

Hisham, Firdaus and Khalid were subsequently arrested in the Yishun flat after a police raid on March 13.

Urging the court to impose a jail sentence of at least 18 months, DPP Chong said Hisham had “knowingly harboured (Khalid) for 31 hours…(and) kept him out of reach from the police”.

Defence lawyer K Jayakumar contended that while his client “did tell them to run…he did not (cause) the fatal blow” to Satheesh.

Hisham was not at the scene when the stabbing took place, said Mr Jayakumar, who sought a jail sentence of between 12 and 15 months.

In sentencing Hisham, District Judge Marvin Bay said the harbouring of an offender was a “grave offence” that “could potentially pervert the cause of justice”.

Hisham’s sentence will be backdated to March 15, when he was first remanded. For harbouring an offender who committed murder, he could have been sentenced to a jail term of up to 10 years, with fine.