22-year-old tells court how he was subjected to violence, humiliation by three cellmates
By
Selina Lum
The victim gave told of how he was physically and sexually assaulted in his Changi Prison cell by three fellow inmates last year. -- ST PHOTO: HOW HWEE YOUNG
HE WAS beaten, humiliated and left with no choice but to submit to sexual acts, a 22-year-old said, recounting his eight-day ordeal at Changi Prison. Released in March after serving an 18-month jail term, he gave the High Court a graphic account on Monday of how he was physically and sexually assaulted in his cell by three fellow inmates last year.
About the case
THREE prisoners - Iryan Abdul Karim, 21; Muhammad Hamdan Abdul Rahman, 20; and Mohammed Zameen Abdul Manoff, 21 - are accused of assaulting their 22-year-old former cellmate.
The offences are said to have been committed over eight days, from April27 to May4 last year.
The slightly built man, standing at 1.6m, said his assailants felt he was a braggart. They did not buy the stories he told and decided he should be punished for his 'lies'.
He said he was given 10 punishment options and told to blindly choose five. The options included sodomy, performing oral sex, serving as a human punching bag and eating faeces.
He was punched, kicked and jumped on. When he could not take the beatings, he offered to perform oral sex on his cellmates, then aged 20 to 21.
The three - Iryan Abdul Karim, Muhammad Hamdan Abdul Rahman, and Mohammed Zameen Abdul Manoff - are defending themselves in court.
The beatings left the man, who cannot be named under a court order, with multiple rib fractures, a scarred liver and kidney failure. He had to be hospitalised for two months.
When the victim said he could not take the repeated punches in the chest, he was ordered to find a way to 'satisfy' them further. The victim offered to masturbate them but Iryan said he wanted more. They stopped beating him only after he offered and performed oral sex.
The victim said prison officers did not notice his injuries and he did not dare tell anyone.
On May 6, he became extremely weak due to his injuries. He was taken to Changi General Hospital twice. On his second admission, he poured out the details to a prison officer.
Asked by Deputy Public Prosecutor David Khoo how he felt about the trio, he replied: 'One of them didn't know what's the value of friendship. The other two, I don't have anything to say.'
Please read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times
