The perpetrators were eventually caught 2 years later and they were subsequently sentenced to serve lengthy jail terms with caning for their part in the robbery and assault of the two tourists, as well as for unrelated offences committed before their arrests.
On 6 June 1994, two men – 25-year-old Abdul Nasir bin Amer Hamsah and 32-year-old Abdul Rahman bin Arshad (alias Azman) – barged into the room shared by two Japanese tourists, Isae Fujii (滕井 勇惠, Fujii Isae), 49, and Miyoko Takishita (泷下 美代子, Takishita Miyoko), 56.
Earlier on that day itself, the two men, who were acquaintances, went to the Oriental Hotel for a job interview when they both spotted the Japanese tour group which both Fujii and Takishita were with.
Seeing this, the two men, who were short of money, decided to rob the Japanese tourists, who were workers and cleaners going on a holiday trip sponsored by their company.
[2] Despite the appeals for witnesses and information with offers of rewards and a police sketch of the robbers being published on newspapers, the case went unsolved for the next 18 months.
The crime of murder was considered a capital offence at that time under Singapore law, which warrants the mandatory death penalty.
[14][15] The conclusion of the murder trial did not mark an end to Abdul Nasir's ordeal, as he had to go back to court to face a kidnapping charge, which he committed during the time of his remand.
Abdul Nasir stood trial alone, as by the time he was convicted in the Oriental Hotel case, the co-perpetrator, Low Theng Gee had been sentenced and incarcerated on death row for his drug trafficking offence.
In his memoir, Anandan revealed that there were initially two more prisoners, who were being remanded for illegal possession of firearms, joining in to help Abdul Nasir and his accomplice to kidnap the police officers but they later backed out at the last moment.
At that time, life imprisonment in Singapore was defined as a jail term of 20 years, with a one-third remission for good behaviour.
Chief Justice Yong Pung How, who led the three-judge panel (also included M Karthigesu and L P Thean) in the appellate court, decided that life imprisonment would no longer be considered as a jail term of 20 years, with a one third remission for good behaviour but as a term of incarceration for the remainder of a convicted prisoner's natural life, with the possibility of parole only after serving at least 20 years.
Yong CJ ruled that this amendment would only apply to future cases after 20 August 1997 and thus Abdul Nasir's life sentence would not be affected.
The Court of Appeal further held that, due to the grievous nature of the crimes, a concurrent sentence would not be sufficiently deterrent to other would-be perpetrators.
This ruling also extensively made impacts on future cases after 20 August 1997 involving a convict sentenced to life imprisonment, including Muhamad Hasik bin Sahar for the manslaughter of a football player (31 May 2001), Tony Anak Imba for the robbery-murder of an Indian construction worker (30 May 2010), and Yong Vui Kong for drug trafficking (14 November 2013).
[21] In 1997, the annual season of Singaporean crime show Crimewatch featured the Oriental Hotel murder as its eighth episode.