Ahmad Danial Mohamed Rafa’ee leaves the Supreme Court, on March 9, 2023. - ST
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): An appeal by the man accused of killing art student Felicia Teo in 2007 to be acquitted of a murder charge was on Thursday dismissed by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon.
Ahmad Danial Mohamed Rafa’ee, 38, had sought a discharge amounting to an acquittal, which would have completely cleared him of the charge without a trial.
Teo, then 19, went missing in 2007. Ahmad was among the few to have been with her when she was last seen alive.
A partial skull, which was later determined to be likely the missing woman’s, was found in June 2010 during excavation works in Punggol. No other remains were found.
Chief Justice Menon, who upheld the lower court’s decision in dismissing the appeal, noted that Ragil Putra Setia Sukmarahjana, who is also allegedly involved in Teo’s death, is still at large.
He added that Ragil seemed to be a “live lead” and that as things stand, the murder charge cannot proceed unless he is found.
The Chief Justice said a discharge not amounting to an acquittal struck the correct balance between the public interest in completing investigations into Teo’s death and the personal liberty of an individual.
A discharge not amounting to an acquittal allows the state to revive proceedings while the accused is free of some restrictions, such as being remanded in custody, he said.
The more serious the charge, the more the balance would tilt in favour of public interest, he said. And in the present case, the charge of murder was at the highest end of the scale, he added.
Police had questioned Ahmad after Teo went missing in 2007, but he claimed that he did not know what happened to her.
In 2020, a review of the case led to Ahmad being questioned again.
This time, he revealed that he was involved in the disposal of her remains, that he was involved in the disposal of her possessions, and that he had not been truthful in 2007.
In October 2022, Ahmad was sentenced to 26 months’ jail on four charges - including one for dumping her corpse and one for giving false evidence to the police - relating to Teo’s death.
But he was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal by a district judge on the murder charge in July 2022.
This means the charge is withdrawn, but he can still be prosecuted if relevant information or evidence were to emerge later.
The prosecution had sought the discharge as Ragil was still at large and efforts to trace him in Indonesia were ongoing.
On Thursday, his lawyer, Shashi Nathan, argued that it was unfair for his client to have the murder charge hanging over his head indefinitely and questioned the efforts made to locate Ragil.
Nathan also cited as an example of the hardship caused to Ahmad, the fact that his application for his passport to be renewed was rejected because of this case.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor Yang Ziliang argued that the seriousness of the offence involved weighed heavily against an acquittal at this juncture.
An acquittal would grant Ahmad absolute immunity from ever being taken to task for the murder of the victim even if evidence of such involvement subsequently came to light, said the prosecutor.
