SINGAPORE - Sales executive Lee Sze Yong was sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday (Dec 1) after he was found guilty of kidnapping the elderly mother of Sheng Siong supermarket boss Lim Hock Chee in January 2014.

Lee, 44, was also given three strokes of the cane.

In a handwritten three-page letter to the court, Lee had asked to be given the death penalty instead of "deprivation of liberty for the rest of my life".

"I had ruined my life. By dying, I hope that I have repaid my debt and to be at peace," he wrote.