SINGAPORE – A man who allegedly held a two-year-old boy hostage in a Sembawang flat in a dramatic 17 hour-stand-off with police was on Friday (Sept 30) hauled to court.

Muhammad Iskandah Suhaimi was charged with having a knuckle duster without permission. Knuckle dusters are also known as brass knuckles.

District Judge Christopher Goh granted the police prosecutor’s request for Iskandah to be remanded for psychiatric evaluation, even as police investigations regarding his involvement in other possible crimes are still ongoing. The case will be mentioned again on Oct 14.

Iskandah was arrested at around noon on Wednesday (Sept 28), after policemen broke into the fifth floor flat at Block 462, Sembawang Drive, where he had locked himself in. Some officers entered the unit through its windows.

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Hostage situation at Sembawang Drive

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Police said the arrest was for wrongful confinement of a two-year-old boy and for suspected drug-related offences.

Iskandah had reportedly fought with the boy’s mother, and then locked himself inside the flat with the boy on Tuesday night.

The police activated its Crisis Negotiation Unit and Special Operations Command, while the Singapore Civil Defence Force dispatched its Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team, among other resources.

The boy was not harmed and has been placed in the custody of the Ministry of Social and Family Development.

His mother, who seemed to have fought with Iskandah before the stand-off began, has also been arrested for suspected drug offences.

The punishment for unlawful possession of a scheduled weapon is a jail term of up to five years, with at least six strokes of the cane, for a first conviction. The penalty for the crime for subsequent convictions is a jail term of between two and eight years, with at least six strokes of the cane.

Under the Corrosive and Explosive Substances and Offensive Weapons Act, all kinds of knuckle dusters are considered weapons.

This article was first published on September 30, 2016.
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