Singapore — A businessman who was sentenced to spend six years in jail after being found guilty of conspiring to have the face of his mistress’ boyfriend slashed was given a discharge on Wednesday (Jul 14).
While the charge against 57-year-old Lim Hong Liang was withdrawn, the discharge does not amount to an acquittal.
Additionally, Lim will not be prosecuted for now for the offence of conspiring with hitmen to cause grievous hurt to 37-year-old Joshua Koh Kian Yong, unless new evidence against him is discovered, or if Lim if breaches any of the conditions attached to his conditional warning.
According to a spokesperson from the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), “In preparing for the retrial, the prosecution reviewed the available evidence and decided to discontinue the criminal proceedings against Lim, and to administer a conditional warning to him instead.
These conditions include Lim not reoffending within a 36-month period, as well as compensating the victim for his medical costs and the pain and suffering for his injuries.”
Lim had been convicted and sentenced in 2019, but filed an appeal. In Feb of this year, the High Court ordered a new trial of the case to be heard.
Lim, the owner of freight forwarding company SNL Logistics and a married man with three children, had a relationship with former beauty queen Audrey Chen in 2014.
While Ms Chen, now 31, moved into a flat at The Parc Condominium near West Coast Road that Lim owned, she was dating Mr Koh, a banquet waiter, who also happened to be married.
This caused Lim to get jealous, thus reportedly ordering his nephew and his son to plan an attack on Mr Koh on Apr 8, 2016.
Hitmen were said to be hired for the amount of $5000 to teach Mr Koh a lesson.
The victim was punched and kicked, which caused his nose to get fractured, and his face was slashed, leaving a scar over his mouth that will likely be permanent.
Lim, who was overseas at the time of the attack, was found guilty in 2019 after a trial three years later and given a six-year jail sentence.
His retrial was ordered when his lawyers argued that the prosecutors on the case had failed to disclose a witness statement.
Justice Aedit Abdullah then found that there were contradictions between the statement and the testimony given by a witness for the prosecution—Lim’s nephew who had been the link to the hitmen.
The credibility of Lim’s nephew, Ron Lim De Mai, was questioned by the judge, who added that Ron Lim’s credibility and credit were also “the foundation of the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, as well as the district judge in his findings.”
For the charge of conspiring to cause grievous hurt, Mr Lim could have ended up in jail for life, caned or been made to pay a fine. /TISG
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