Tham Weng Kuen was killed inside her home
Tham Weng Kuen lived in a Boon Lay flat with her husband, who was bedridden after a stroke. The court record states that she was killed on May 6, 2005. Muhammad bin Kadar and his older brother Ismil lived one floor below and were both arrested and charged with murder in furtherance of a common intention to commit robbery.
The case became unusually complex because the prosecution's theory about who physically attacked Tham changed during the long trial, and Muhammad ultimately testified that he alone had been the assailant.
The High Court initially convicted both brothers
After a trial lasting 94 days over more than two years, the High Court convicted both brothers in 2009. The trial judge rejected Muhammad's diminished-responsibility defence and accepted the prosecution's case that both were legally liable for murder under the common-intention provision.
That was not the final legal position. Treating both men as permanently convicted would ignore the later appellate correction.
The Court of Appeal acquitted Ismil
In 2011, the Court of Appeal described the case as extraordinary and revisited the evidence in detail. It concluded that Muhammad's account of being the sole assailant should have been accepted. Ismil's murder conviction was quashed and he was acquitted.
Muhammad's appeal was dismissed. The appellate court substituted a murder conviction against Muhammad alone and held that the case against him had been proved beyond reasonable doubt. The archive therefore names Muhammad as the convicted offender and Ismil as an acquitted co-accused.
A later resentencing application did not alter Muhammad's conviction
After Singapore amended its death-penalty laws, Muhammad sought resentencing. In September 2014, the Court of Appeal held that his conviction fell within intentional murder under section 300(a), for which the amended framework did not provide a discretionary alternative sentence. His motion was rejected.
Amnesty International later recorded that Muhammad was executed at Changi Prison in April 2015. That later penal history does not change the core editorial point: one brother was convicted; the other was judicially acquitted.
Timeline
May 6, 2005: Tham Weng Kuen is killed in her Boon Lay flat.
April 7, 2009: the High Court publishes grounds convicting both Muhammad and Ismil bin Kadar.
July 5, 2011: the Court of Appeal acquits Ismil and upholds murder liability against Muhammad alone.
September 29, 2014: the Court of Appeal rejects Muhammad's bid for resentencing under the amended murder framework.
April 2015: Amnesty International records that Muhammad bin Kadar is executed at Changi Prison.
Current status
The murder of Tham Weng Kuen is Solved / Adjudicated. Muhammad bin Kadar's murder conviction stood after appeal and later resentencing litigation. Ismil bin Kadar was acquitted by the Court of Appeal and is not presented as criminally responsible.