'One-Eyed Dragon' to hang - Tan told wife he wants to donate his organs after his death

'One-Eyed Dragon' to hang - Tan told wife he wants to donate his organs after his death
By Selina Lum

A FORMER triad leader who gunned down a nightclub owner in 2006 has been denied clemency by the President in what was a last-ditch effort to avoid the gallows.

The decision paves the way for Tan Chor Jin, dubbed the 'One-Eyed Dragon', to be executed within the next two weeks.

Tan, who is blind in one eye, applied for clemency in August last year, and was turned down last week.

The 42-year-old was convicted in May 2007 of fatally shooting Mr Lim Hock Soon.

The High Court heard that on the morning of Feb 15, 2006, Tan barged into Mr Lim's Serangoon flat with a knife in one hand and a loaded pistol in the other.

He ordered Mr Lim to tie up his wife, daughter and their maid.

In the study, Tan fired six shots at his one-time friend. Five of the bullets hit Mr Lim.

Tan left the flat with the family's valuables, then directed a former secret society underling to drive him to a canal, where he dumped the gun.

The motive for the attack remains unclear, though a dispute over money seemed to be at the root of things.

The High Court rejected Tan's multi-pronged defence: that he had been drunk, that the shots were fired accidentally, and that he had acted in self-defence after Mr Lim threw a chair at him.

Tan repeatedly refused to be assigned a lawyer and defended himself during a trial that was marked with his roguish quips and constant requests for cigarettes.

However, he said he wanted prominent criminal lawyer Subhas Anandan to argue his appeal.

Mr Anandan asked the Court of Appeal to set aside Tan's conviction and order a re-trial, arguing that Tan was denied a lawyer to help with his closing submissions.

The appeal was dismissed last January.

Tan and his wife have no children. But he has a son and a daughter with his mistress.

His wife, Madam Siau Fang Fang, 27, earlier told Shin Min Daily News that although she was extremely dissapointed with the outcome, she has accepted that her husband of eight years will be hanged.

Madam Siau added that Tan had told her he wished to donate his organs after his death, The New Paper reported.

He also consoled her and asked her to accept his impending death, she said.

Since independence, the President has granted clemency only six times.

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_322487.html