SINGAPORE, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Singaporean man Leong Siew Chor, the accused killer of 22-year-old female Chinese national Liu Hongmei, was sentenced to death on Friday, Channel NewsAsia reportsaid.

    The High Court rejected Leong's defense that he and Liu had made a suicide pact but he feared to kill himself after stranglingher to death.

    Instead, Justice Tay Yong Kwang was convinced that Leong, 51, Liu's supervisor at work, had killed her to prevent her from exposing the fact that he had stolen a bank debit card from her and withdrawn more than 2,000 Singapore dollars (about 1,263 U.S. dollars) from her bank account.

    Liu had been working in Singapore as a production operator in Agere Systems for more than two years and lived with her elder sister in a rented house before she was murdered and dismembered on June 15, 2005.

    The report said that Leong has indicated to his lawyers that hewants to appeal and he has 14 days to do so. Enditem