"Wanted a Divorce"... Husband Hid Marijuana in Wife's Car

Husband Separated from Wife Buys Marijuana
Secretly Places It in Wife's Car Backseat
Singapore May Impose Death Penalty for Drug Trafficking

A man in Singapore was reported to have used marijuana in an attempt to divorce his wife.

On the 31st of last month, foreign media including the BBC reported that a Singapore court arrested a man identified as A (37) on charges of marijuana possession and sentenced him to 3 years and 10 months in prison. According to the report, A purchased marijuana via Telegram in October last year and placed it in the back seat of his estranged wife's car.

A and his wife married in 2021 but began living apart a year later. However, since Singapore only allows divorce for couples married for more than three years, they were unable to proceed with divorce. A believed that if his wife was arrested on criminal charges, it would qualify as an exception allowing divorce, so he planned the crime with his mistress last year. In October, he bought a chunk of marijuana through a Telegram group chat and weighed it. Confirming that the marijuana exceeded 500g (about 1.1 pounds), he secretly placed it in his wife's car the next day.

However, A overlooked one detail. His wife's car was equipped with a camera, and her phone was set to receive alerts for any car impact. Through real-time footage, A's wife saw her estranged husband wandering around her car and reported it to the police. During the investigation, police found the marijuana while searching the vehicle and arrested A's wife. However, they could not find evidence to prove her guilt and eventually confirmed that A had secretly placed the marijuana in the car.

A's defense lawyer claimed that "A was suffering from depression at the time of the crime," but the court dismissed this, stating, "Upon reviewing the doctor's opinion, A did not have any mental illness." According to the court, A faced a maximum sentence of up to 5 years in prison, but his early admission of guilt and cooperation with the procedure were considered mitigating factors in sentencing.

Meanwhile, in Singapore, possession of drugs can result in imprisonment depending on the type and amount of drugs seized, and drug trafficking can carry the death penalty. Despite protests from international human rights organizations last year, Singapore executed two drug traffickers over a period of five months.