A 39-year-old man who was arrested for holding a toddler hostage in a Sembawang flat last month returned to court on Friday (Oct 14), where he faced three new drug charges.
Muhammad Iskandah Suhaimi had confined his girlfriend’s two-year-old son in a fifth-floor rental home at Blk 462, Sembawang Drive, in a 17-hour overnight standoff with the police.
Iskandah is accused of taking methamphetamine “on or before” the day of the standoff.
He is also accused of having a packet containing 0.63g of a crystalline substance, which included methamphetamine.
The toddler’s mother, Ms Siti Zubaydah Mohd Hamzah, had “knowledge” (of) and “consent(ed)” to this packet of drugs, court documents stated.
In addition, Iskandah allegedly owned utensils, namely an improvised glass bottle with a glass pipe and a rubber tube, for drug consumption on April 12 with Ms Zubaydah. He will return to court on Nov 1.
Iskandah has been prosecuted in the past for a drug offence. In August 2001, he was jailed for a year for consuming a controlled drug.
Apart from the latest charges, he faces an earlier charge of possessing a scheduled weapon in the form of a knuckle-duster — an offence that carries a jail term of up to five years and at least six strokes of the cane for first-timers if convicted.
The hostage situation arose from a dispute that Iskandah had with the toddler’s family members. The police were notified on the evening of Sept 27, but he refused to open the door for them when they arrived.
The next day, the Crisis Negotiation Unit and Special Operations Command officers broke the window panes and cut the locked gate to rescue the toddler and arrest Iskandah.
Ms Zubaydah was also arrested then for drug-related offences, but the Central Narcotics Bureau and the State Courts did not reply to queries as to whether she has been charged in court.
Source: www.todayonline.com
