Singapore refugee sentenced to 3.5 years in prison after 25 years on the run for “brutal” stabbing in Ang Mo Kio billiards hall in 1999

SINGAPORE, Sept 4 – What began as a verbal argument over a game of billiards quickly escalated into a brawl in which a man stabbed another man six times with a fruit knife, causing injuries that required emergency surgery.

After committing the crime in 1999, Nah Kiam Seng was on the run for 25 years. He fled Singapore to the Philippines, where he lived until he was arrested for overstaying and detained by authorities in 2014.

Nah spent ten years in detention in the Philippines before being deported and rearrested in Singapore on July 13 this year.

Yesterday, Nah, now 66, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison.

He pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm by means of a stabbing or cutting instrument.

What happened

The court heard that on March 2, 1999, at around 2:30 a.m., Nah got into an argument with the victim.

The dispute arose over a game of pool at the Blue Berry Hill Lounge, a pub in Jalan Leban in Ang Mo Kio that is still in business 25 years later.

The victim, a then 53-year-old man from Singapore, had walked over to the pool table where Nah, Nah's friend Terence and the owner of the Blue Berry Hill Lounge, identified in court documents as Danny, were playing.

The victim had suggested a certain strategy for Danny’s game.

When Terence heard this, he asked the man not to interfere in the game because there was a bet currently on the game.

However, the man did not react positively to Terence's words and the two began to argue with each other.

Nah intervened to break up the argument, but this resulted in Nah and the man yelling at each other.

The verbal argument soon escalated into a brawl in which the man hit Nah in the face with a cue.

Furious, Nah picked up a bar stool and tried to hit the man with it, but was stopped by Danny.

Danny calmed Nah down and led him out of the pub. Shortly afterwards, Terence was also escorted out.

Shortly afterwards, Nah ran back into the bar and went straight towards the man.

Nah was armed with a fruit knife with a blade about 5 to 7 centimeters long. He had bought the fruit knife on another occasion at a sporting goods store in Chinatown.

Court documents did not say why Nah bought the knife or why he carried it with him.

Before the man could react, Nah pounced on him and stabbed the man in the stomach area six times with the fruit knife.

Nah had attacked the man, still full of anger from the earlier scuffle. Although the man tried to fend off Nah's attacks, it was in vain.

The man felt a stabbing pain from the attacks and blood began to seep from his wounds.

The man's wife, who was with him in the bar, was speechless at first, but after a few stabs she began to call for help.

Nah then ran out of the pub and across the street. On the way he threw away the fruit knife and jumped into a taxi.

The victim was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital and was found to have a 3cm stab wound in his right chest and five stab wounds in his right upper abdomen, ranging in width from 1cm to 3cm.

The man had to undergo an emergency laparotomy, an open surgical procedure in the abdomen. During the operation, it was discovered that he had suffered a rupture of his gallbladder, which was leaking bile.

The man was treated in hospital from March 2 to 13, 1999 and again from March 27 to April 6.

He was granted sick leave from March 21 to April 14. This was extended until April 20 of the same year.

The court found that the man was unable to carry out his “ordinary activities” for a period of 50 days – from March 2 to April 20, 1999.

Fled to the Philippines

After the March 2 incident, Nah was on the run until June 19, 1999, before he was tracked down and arrested by the police.

On June 21, 1999, Nah was charged in court with intentionally causing injury by using a stabbing or cutting instrument.

He decided to take the charges to court.

However, Nah later failed to appear for his pre-trial interviews on November 16, November 29, and December 6, 1999. Therefore, an arrest warrant was issued on December 6.

At some point in 1999, Nah fled to the Philippines.

In 2014, he was finally caught in the Philippines for overstaying his visa and imprisoned for the next decade.

On July 13 this year, he was deported from the Philippines and arrested again upon arrival in Singapore.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ariel Tan said that during the 25 years Nah spent outside Singapore, police regularly updated the police report issued for him to establish his whereabouts.

“Resources have been spent for 25 years tracking (Nah) down and this should have a balancing effect on the amount of resources (he) saved by pleading guilty,” DPP Tan said.

DPP Tan described Nah's attack as “outrageous and brutal” and called for a prison sentence of between three and a half and four years.

She found that Nah ran back into the bar to stab the man – six times while the man was “defenseless.” Nah only stopped to run away when the man's wife called for help.

DPP Tan also pointed out that Nah was facing a separate charge for the same offence, which was committed “nearly a year before the current offence”.

Nah had stabbed the victim of the previous crime several times in the left shoulder with a fruit knife, after which the victim was hospitalized for 48 days.

This earlier allegation was also taken into account in the verdict.

DPP Tan emphasised this, saying the “striking similarity” of the offences and the fact that they were committed on two separate occasions reflected Nah’s “propensity for violence”.

DPP Tan also noted that Nah went into hiding while on bail, saying this was “essentially an attempt by the accused to evade the consequences of his actions and reflects his utter disregard for authority and lack of remorse for his offences”.

“In fact, he took his contempt for authority all the way to the Philippines, where he was caught overstaying his visa and imprisoned for 10 years,” she added.

DPP Tan said Nah should not be given any recognition for his presence in Singapore as he was deported here after 25 years on the run.

Nah – who has been in custody since his re-arrest on July 13, 2024 – appeared in court via video link.

In his defense, Nah, who had no legal representation, told the court that he had not seen his family, including his mother, wife, children and siblings, for over a decade.

“I know what I did was wrong, but when I came back here I had nothing left in my life,” he said through tears.

For intentionally causing serious injury with a stabbing or cutting instrument, Nah could have received a life sentence or a prison sentence of up to 10 years, as well as a flogging or a fine. — TODAY