07-05-2025
Chinese youth studying in S'pore kidnapped in JB; suspect claims he was coerced
The parents of an 18-year-old Chinese national studying in Singapore received two ransom calls demanding 3.5 million yuan (S$620,000) after their son was kidnapped in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
Malaysian media China Press reported that the teen was from Foshan, China, and was studying at the Singapore Institute of Management.
He is the only child in the family, and his parents, Ms Cheng, 40, and Mr Ye, 43, are working in Dubai.
At around 11.44am on May 2, they received a call from their son, along with a video showing him being beaten and strangled.
Ms Cheng said that the video showed her son kidnapped by a group of Chinese nationals.
The kidnappers first demanded 500,000 yuan in ransom, but later demanded another 3 million yuan and threatened to kill him and sell his organs.
The couple flew from Dubai to Singapore in search of their son, but they later found out that he had entered JB on April 30.
They then flew to Kuala Lumpur and reported the case to the Malaysian police.
It was reported that their son came to Singapore in October last year to study, and shared a rental house near the school with five others. Before his disappearance, he had not been to school for a week.
Ms Cheng said she heard from her son's classmates that he was online playing games with them the night before entering Malaysia, and the last recorded location on her son's mobile phone was in Orchard Road.
"My husband and I are busy with work and there is a time difference, so we rarely contact our son, but he has always been independent and well-behaved."
After receiving the report, the Malaysian police arrested the suspect at the departure hall of Penang International Airport within 48 hours and rescued the youth.
Coercion by 'Chinese police officer'
The Chinese suspect claimed that he was only responsible for filming the video of the hostage being beaten by others. At that time, he did not know that it was a kidnapping case, and he did not request ransom from the hostage's parents.
He told Malaysian police that he received a call from a person claiming to be a "Chinese police officer" in March, accusing him of being involved in a credit card fraud case.
The 23-year-old was instructed to go to KL to help film a video that would be used to promote anti-fraud, and was promised that the case against him would be dropped if the video was completed.
Two videos of the victim being beaten were filmed in a hotel room in KL and an oil palm plantation in Kedah. The videos were then sent to the "Chinese police officer".
The 18-year-old hostage was later freed. He walked to the police station, where he called his grandfather using a phone borrowed from a police officer.
The police later searched for him and found him at a petrol station, fully clothed, with a thigh injury.
He was taken to the police station for investigation.
When reporters from China Press asked if Ms Cheng and Mr Ye had noticed anything amiss with their son before the incident, Ms Cheng revealed that when his son returned to China earlier in March, he told his grandfather that he had fallen into a scam and asked to borrow 40,000 yuan.
His grandfather rejected and reprimanded him.
"My father did not tell me about this, and I found out about it only when my son went missing. I think the kidnapping might be related to this, but it still needs to be confirmed after the police investigation," Ms Cheng said.
Shin Min Daily News reported that the youth and his parents have returned to China.
