The proceedings for former transport minister S. Iswaran are expected to begin at 10am on Sept 24, and will continue until Sept 27. - ST
SINGAPORE: The High Court on Tuesday (Sept 24) will see the first Singapore political office-holder in nearly five decades standing trial.
The proceedings for former transport minister S. Iswaran, 62, are expected to begin at 10am, and will continue until Sept 27.
Further trial dates have been set in November 2024, and from January to March 2025.
Opening statements will be heard from the prosecution led by Deputy Attorney-General Tai Wei Shyong and Iswaran’s defence team led by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh.
Iswaran faces a total of 35 charges.
Of these, 32 involve items worth over S$237,000 allegedly obtained from billionaire hotelier and Formula One (F1) race promoter Singapore GP’s chairman Ong Beng Seng, and David Lum, managing director of mainboard-listed construction company Lum Chang Holdings.
The items include tickets to F1 races, football matches and musical shows allegedly obtained from Ong, and bottles of whisky, golf clubs and a Brompton bicycle allegedly obtained from Lum.
These charges fall under Section 165 of the Penal Code, which makes it an offence for a public servant to accept or obtain anything of value, for free or for inadequate payment, from anyone with whom he is involved in an official capacity.
Of the remaining three charges, two are for corruption and one for allegedly performing an act that could likely obstruct the course of justice.
The obstruction charge relates to $5,700 he allegedly repaid to Singapore GP for the cost of his business-class flight from Doha to Singapore that he purportedly took on Dec 11, 2022, at Ong’s expense through the company.
Ong and his wife, prominent businesswoman Christina Ong, and Lum are among the 56 prosecution witnesses expected to take the stand.
The prosecution witnesses also include Iswaran’s wife Kay Mary Taylor; Iswaran’s former personal assistant Ivy Chan Wan Hiang; Singapore GP deputy chairman Colin Syn Wai Hung; and Singapore GP director Mok Chee Liang.
The judge presiding over the case is Justice Vincent Hoong.
Iswaran was first handed 27 charges on Jan 18.
On March 25, he was handed eight more charges relating to items he had allegedly obtained from Lum.
Under Singapore’s public service rules on gifts, civil servants cannot retain gifts worth more than $50, unless they pay the market value of the gift to the Government.
Public servants who obtain or accept gifts, or attempt to do so, from an individual with whom they have official dealings without necessarily giving or doing anything in return can be punished under Section 165.
There were three known prosecutions relating to this law in 1952 and 1953, although there is scant information about them.
Minister-in-charge of the Public Service Chan Chun Sing said in Parliament in August 2023 that political office-holders adopt a similar spirit and principles.
He added that there are specific rules spelt out in the code of conduct for ministers, which has been in place since 1954 and was last updated in 2005. - The Straits Times/ANN
