SINGAPORE — A Singapore prison officer has been sentenced to 10 months in jail for helping an inmate smuggle prohibited items, including painkillers and lewd photographs, into Changi Prison Complex, The Straits Times reported.
The officer, 39-year-old Mohammad Asri Abd Rahim, was also ordered to pay a penalty of S$3,700 — the amount of bribes he received from the inmate, Mohamad Yusof Kasim, through the latter’s friends and acquaintances.
Yusof, 50, who was serving time at Changi Prison, was also sentenced to 10 months’ jail for his role in the scheme. Both men had pleaded guilty last month to multiple corruption-related charges committed between August 2021 and June 2022, according to the report.
One of Yusof’s associates, 36-year-old Murali Vigneshwaran, was also jailed four months yesterday after pleading guilty to a corruption-linked charge for passing cash bribes to Asri on Yusof’s behalf.
District Judge Ng Cheng Thiam said both Yusof and Murali had not only re-offended but had also “corrupted” Asri, causing damage to public trust in the Singapore Prison Service.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Andrew Chia told the court that Asri, who joined the service in 2012, initially began smuggling painkiller pills known as gabapentin in 2021 to reward inmates who helped him with housekeeping duties.
According to the report, the arrangement later evolved when Yusof, also known as “Kimo”, proposed paying Asri to smuggle contraband items, including lewd photographs and medication, through prison security.
Yusof used coded language in e-letters sent to friends outside prison to coordinate deliveries — referring to Asri as “ayam” (chicken), lewd photos as “postcards”, money as “paper”, and gabapentin pills as “visit goods”.
To evade detection, Asri removed the pills from their aluminium packaging and hid them in small bags concealed inside his socks or underwear before entering the prison.
The illicit arrangement continued until mid-2022 when prison officers raided Yusof’s cell and discovered contraband items, leading to their arrest.
Under Singapore’s laws, each corruption charge carries a maximum penalty of five years’ jail, a fine of up to S$100,000, or both.
