SINGAPORE: The State Court has ruled that Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh is guilty on two counts of lying under oath to a parliamentary committee, making him the first sitting opposition MP to be convicted of a criminal charge in almost 40 years.
With a general election that could be held by mid-year, the ruling puts a question mark over Singh’s political future.
Delivering his judgement before a packed courtroom on Feb 17, Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan ruled that the Leader of the Opposition had lied to the Committee of Privileges about how he dealt with the untruth that former WP MP Raeesah Khan told in Parliament on Aug 3, 2021.
Singh did not want Khan to clarify her lie in Parliament when he met her on Aug 8, 2021 and on Oct 3, 2021, the judge said.
Judge Tan said he accepted Khan’s account of her meeting with Singh on Aug 8, 2021, during which he said he told her to take her lie to the grave.
A text message Khan sent her close confidants right after the meeting that said “they’ve agreed that the best thing to do is to take the information to the grave” strongly supported Khan’s account of what Singh said at the meeting, the judge said.
Judge Tan cited other evidence that showed Singh had not wanted Ms Khan to clarify her untruth in Parliament at the conclusion of the Aug 8 meeting. Anything that Singh said to the COP to claim otherwise was “a lie that he wilfully told”, the judge added.
The judge also found Singh did not want Khan to clarify her lie at the Parliament sitting on Oct 4, 2021, even if it came up that day, stating that his lack of actions that day is consistent with Khan’s account of how he told her he would not judge her if she continued the narrative.
Broadly, Singh’s account of events in court was inconsistent with the facts or “simply unbelievable”, Judge Tan said.
Singh is the first person in post-independence Singapore to be convicted under Section 31(q) of the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act, which makes it an offence to lie in response to questions posed by Parliament or its committees. The offence carries a fine of up to $7,000 and a jail term of up to three years, or both.
The prosecution is seeking the maximum fine of $7,000 for each of Singh’s two charges, while the defence sought a fine of $4,000 per charge.
The Constitution states that a sitting MP will lose their seat and be disqualified from standing for election if he is jailed for at least one year, or fined at least $10,000.
Singh looked calm and took notes as his verdict was read.
WP MPs Jamus Lim, Gerald Giam and Dennis Tan, as well as Singh’s father Amarjit Singh – a former district judge who has been assisting his son’s legal team – attended the hearing.
The COP was convened in November 2021 to look into the lying controversy involving former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan.
In December 2021, the COP held hearings into a claim made on Aug 3, 2021, by Khan, who said she had accompanied a sexual assault victim to a police station, where the victim was treated insensitively. She repeated the claim before the House on Oct 4 the same year.
This was later found to be untrue, with Khan admitting to lying in Parliament and resigning from WP and as an MP in November that year. She said she had been sexually assaulted herself, and had heard about the victim’s experience at a support group session.
Singh is represented by lawyer Andre Jumabhoy. Deputy Attorney-General Ang Cheng Hock, a former High Court judge, led the prosecution team. - The Straits Times/ANN
