A FORMER honorary secretary of the Singapore Islamic Scholars and Religious Teachers Association (Pergas) who went into hiding after he was found guilty of drug offences has been arrested after seven years on the run.
It is not known when and where Muhamad Mohamad Ishak, 44, was nabbed, but he was produced in a district court yesterday.
It is understood that he was arrested on Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur and handed over to the Singapore police. His case will be mentioned again in about two weeks.
Muhamad, also a former uztaz or religious teacher, went into hiding in 2004, after his conviction for conspiring to smuggle in 5.64g of cannabis and for taking the drug here.
Found guilty by a district court after a 20-day trial, he was out on bail for a week for his lawyer to prepare arguments for a lenient sentence. He was a no-show at the sentencing, and a warrant of arrest was` issued against him.
He could have been jailed for five to 30 years and given between five and 15 strokes of the cane for his drug offences. The $120,000 bail put up by his wife was forfeited.
During the trial, the court had heard that Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officers raided Strand Hotel in Bencoolen Street on July 2, 2003, where Muhamad was in one of the rooms with his Uzbekistan girlfriend.
CNB officers found two packs of cannabis in his car.
His business partner, Hamli Mohamed Salleh, who was in another room with his girlfriend, also from Uzbekistan, was also arrested. He had a pack of cannabis on him.
Hamli, 38, a former executive director of a freight and aircraft charter company, was jailed for a year in December 2003.
The court heard that Muhamad had conspired with him to procure the drugs from Malaysia and smuggle them here.
The pair had also smoked cannabis the day before the raid on Strand Hotel; they were nailed on drug consumption charges when their urine specimens tested positive for the drug.
. You beat me to it. :p
