Malaysian loses appeal against murder conviction in Singapore

SINGAPORE: A 52-year-old man, who killed a former colleague in 2016 after she turned down a request for sex lost his appeal against his murder conviction.

According to a report in TODAY, all three judges in the Court of Appeal agreed that Boh Soon Ho had not been so provoked by Zhang Huaxiang’s words that he lost self-control before he strangled the 25-year-old nurse to death in his Circuit Road flat.

The judges were quoted as saying that “(Boh) was more frustrated and agitated by the fact that he had not had sex with her after having spent time and money on her over several years, than by anything she said to him.”

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In February, Boh, who is a Malaysian with Singapore PR, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment over the killing on March 21, 2016.

He appealed the conviction and argued that he should have been convicted on a reduced charge of culpable homicide, citing a case of grave and sudden provocation.

According to the facts of the case, the killing took place after Boh and Zhang had dinner at his flat.

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It was reported by the Singapore online portal that Zhang and Boh were just friends but that he wanted to have sex with her, and when she said no, he sexually assaulted her.

In his defence, Boh said he was angry and strangled her to death with a bath towel, after she had told him of her continued intimacy with an ex-boyfriend.

After killing Zhang, Boh tried to have sex with her corpse and also took photographs of her nude body.

He then fled Singapore but was caught by Malaysian police in Melaka on April 4, 2016.

During both trials, Boh had testified that he regarded Zhang as his girlfriend and expected their relationship to be exclusive.