On 2 November 1980, two people – 31-year-old fish dealer Lee Cheng Tiong and 16-year-old Teo Keng Siang – were brutally murdered by one or more unknown assailants. The murders remained unsolved for two years before a suspect was finally nabbed in connection to the killings.

Life imprisonment is a legal penalty in Singapore. This sentence is applicable for more than forty offences under Singapore law, such as culpable homicide not amounting to murder, attempted murder, kidnapping by ransom, criminal breach of trust by a public servant, voluntarily causing grievous hurt with dangerous weapons, and trafficking of firearms, in addition to caning or a fine for certain offences that warrant life imprisonment.