SINGAPORE — Feeling sympathetic towards his brother and an acquaintance who were unable to see their families overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic, a boatman agreed to help them leave Singapore illegally.

At about midnight, Singaporean Arman Mahmood took the two men to waters south of Kusu Island, where the pair hopped onto an Indonesian taxi boat that sped towards Batam, Indonesia.

Arman, 36, was on Friday (Jan 8) jailed seven months and fined S$6,000 after he admitted to one count each of abetting another person to leave the country illegally and deliberately switching off a vessel transponder to avoid detection.

He will serve another two weeks in jail as he did not pay the fine. Another charge of abetting a person to leave illegally was taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that Arman was working as a steersman for a vessel that ferried passengers from Marina South Pier to ships, or from one ship to another.

While on duty at about 11.35pm on Oct 29 last year, his brother Muhammad Aqib Mahmood, 29, asked Arman for help to ferry him and the acquaintance, Mohamad Sodikin Ritban, 43, to Batam to see their families.

Arman knew that his brother had been travelling to Batam frequently before travel restrictions set in due to the pandemic. Aqib had a family living in a village in Batam although he was not legally married there.

Arman agreed to help the two men because he was sympathetic to their plight and they left almost immediately.

As they neared the border between Indonesia and Singapore, Arman switched off the power supply to a transponder to avoid detection by the Police Coast Guard.

The transponder is a mandatory tracking device that allows the authorities to track vessels’ locations and for vessels to identify other nearby vessels.

An hour later, a 15m-long taxi boat arrived to pick up the two men. Arman turned his vessel around and switched on the transponder.

However, a coast guard officer had been watching them all along and Arman was arrested soon after.

Court records showed that the two men, both Singaporeans, were arrested after they returned to Singapore.

His brother, Aqib, had returned to Singapore through Kusu Island in late November last year and was jailed two months in December. Sodikin is now remanded, pending his court case.

Arman told the court on Friday that he has learnt his lesson and asked for leniency because he has a wife in Johor, Malaysia, who is sick.

“I know I was wrong,” he said through a Malay interpreter. “I did not do this for money, I just wanted to help.”

The maximum penalty for abetting a person to leave the country illegally is two years’ jail and a S$6,000 fine. For deliberately switching off his vessel’s transponder, Arman could have been fined up to S$20,000.