'Investigator said he'll beat me to death'
By Khushwant Singh
Neo is accused of hurting a suspect in a false marriage case. -- ST FILE PHOTO
A CHINESE national being investigated over an alleged marriage of convenience testified yesterday that a senior anti-graft officer hit her and threatened to beat her till she died.
Clinic assistant Lin Yanmei, 41, said principal senior investigator Neo Siong Leng was 'very loud and very fierce' when interviewing her in January last year.
The 33-year-old Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) officer was then investigating her involvement in a false marriage to a Singaporean.
Neo is now on trial for hurting Ms Lin by throwing a file at her face, which cut her lip and chipped a tooth, on Jan 14. He is also said to have kicked a table that hit her knee that same day.
Ms Lin told Deputy Public Prosecutor Samuel Chua that her marriage was not a sham. She said she reported Neo's conduct to the police because 'hitting people, scolding people for no reason at all was going too far'.
When questioned by Neo's lawyer, Mr Subhas Anandan, she admitted to not mentioning the death threat in her original police statement.
No one had asked her about it, and she was also then very confused about the allegations that she paid money to 58-year-old cleaner Chan Hon Kwan to marry her.
She explained that the credit card found on her during the interview at the CPIB building had been given to her by Mr Mah Ching Leong, her 'godfather'.
He was not her lover, she insisted. He had merely taken a liking to her because she reminded him of his daughter in Australia, she said.
She also denied telling Neo that Mr Mah, who is in his early 60s, was her business partner in a marriage agency to be called Yan Leong.
She said that she had no reason to take money from Mr Mah, as her husband gave her $10 to $20 a day. She also reimbursed Mr Mah for expenses chalked to the credit card.
Ms Lin disagreed when Mr Anandan said that Neo did not kick the table in the interview room that bruised her knee and that she sustained the injury elsewhere.
She was not injured by a plastic file, he then suggested.
The lawyer said that as Neo was recording Ms Lin's statement that night, her marriage certificate fell on the floor. To pick it up without having to stoop near her, Neo tried to kick it away from her, but his shoe flew off and hit her mouth instead.
Neo was said to be wearing his father's shoes, which were a size too big. The court was not told why he was not wearing his own shoes.
Ms Lin insisted that Neo flung a plastic file at her and denied telling two CPIB officers immediately after the incident that she was not sure what hit her.
However, she agreed with Mr Anandan that she could not say if Neo had hurt her 'intentionally or accidentally'.
The doctor who treated her will take the stand this afternoon.
By Khushwant Singh
Neo is accused of hurting a suspect in a false marriage case. -- ST FILE PHOTO
A CHINESE national being investigated over an alleged marriage of convenience testified yesterday that a senior anti-graft officer hit her and threatened to beat her till she died.
Clinic assistant Lin Yanmei, 41, said principal senior investigator Neo Siong Leng was 'very loud and very fierce' when interviewing her in January last year.
The 33-year-old Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) officer was then investigating her involvement in a false marriage to a Singaporean.
Neo is now on trial for hurting Ms Lin by throwing a file at her face, which cut her lip and chipped a tooth, on Jan 14. He is also said to have kicked a table that hit her knee that same day.
Ms Lin told Deputy Public Prosecutor Samuel Chua that her marriage was not a sham. She said she reported Neo's conduct to the police because 'hitting people, scolding people for no reason at all was going too far'.
When questioned by Neo's lawyer, Mr Subhas Anandan, she admitted to not mentioning the death threat in her original police statement.
No one had asked her about it, and she was also then very confused about the allegations that she paid money to 58-year-old cleaner Chan Hon Kwan to marry her.
She explained that the credit card found on her during the interview at the CPIB building had been given to her by Mr Mah Ching Leong, her 'godfather'.
He was not her lover, she insisted. He had merely taken a liking to her because she reminded him of his daughter in Australia, she said.
She also denied telling Neo that Mr Mah, who is in his early 60s, was her business partner in a marriage agency to be called Yan Leong.
She said that she had no reason to take money from Mr Mah, as her husband gave her $10 to $20 a day. She also reimbursed Mr Mah for expenses chalked to the credit card.
Ms Lin disagreed when Mr Anandan said that Neo did not kick the table in the interview room that bruised her knee and that she sustained the injury elsewhere.
She was not injured by a plastic file, he then suggested.
The lawyer said that as Neo was recording Ms Lin's statement that night, her marriage certificate fell on the floor. To pick it up without having to stoop near her, Neo tried to kick it away from her, but his shoe flew off and hit her mouth instead.
Neo was said to be wearing his father's shoes, which were a size too big. The court was not told why he was not wearing his own shoes.
Ms Lin insisted that Neo flung a plastic file at her and denied telling two CPIB officers immediately after the incident that she was not sure what hit her.
However, she agreed with Mr Anandan that she could not say if Neo had hurt her 'intentionally or accidentally'.
The doctor who treated her will take the stand this afternoon.
