Robbers jailed for seven years

Robbers jailed for seven years

SINGAPORE: Two Indonesians and a Malaysian who fled to Singapore after committing two robberies in Malaysia have each been sentenced to seven years jail and 12 strokes of the cane, reports said on Friday.

Their "escape" to Singapore on March 18 sparked a brief, but massive, manhunt involving more than 1,200 local police officers and soldiers, according to the Straits Times.

The trio had stolen a motorized sampan, or small boat, in Malaysia's southern-most state of Johor after committing an armed robbery at a market and originally set out for the nearby Indonesian island of Batam.

But, with Malaysian police in pursuit, they were forced to change course and landed on Singapore's Pulau Tekong, a heavily forested islet reserved for military training,

In sentencing the trio on Thursday, Senior District Judge Richard Magnus said they were "no ordinary domestic criminals (and had) displayed an alarming bravado". -- AFP