MD faces six drug-related charges

The managing director of a local pharmaceutical company, ICM Pharma, has been hauled to court to face six drug-related charges, including one of trafficking.

Stuart Koe Chi Yeow, who founded lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender news and social networking site Fridae.com in 2000, was first charged in a district court on Sept 23 last year.

The 44-year-old is accused of selling a packet of crystalline substance, later found to contain 0.17g of methamphetamine, to Yeoh Kim Koon for $240, at a Spottiswoode Park Road apartment on Aug 25 last year.

Earlier in the year, on March 23, he allegedly took methamphetamine and was believed to be in possession of a fragment of a tablet containing nimetazepam (Erimin 5).

Koe and another man, John Lee Yung Chun, 38, are also accused of jointly having in their possession 0.09g of a crystalline substance - found to contain methamphetamine - that day.

They also allegedly had in their possession utensils to consume drugs - namely, a glass pipe with an attached rubber tube.

According to court documents, Koe allegedly had in his possession a tablet fragment containing nimetazepam in the Spottiswoode Park Road apartment on Sept 22 last year.

Lee allegedly consumed methamphetamine and nimetazepam on March 23. He is also accused of being in possession of a tablet and two fragments of tablets found to contain nimetazepam that day.

Koe and Lee, who are represented by lawyers Sunil Sudheesan and Diana Ngiam, will be back in court on March 8.

Yeoh will return on March 3.

If convicted of drug trafficking, Koe can be jailed for between five and 20 years, and receive between five and 15 strokes of the cane.

This article was first published on February 22, 2017.
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