Close on the heels of former Singapore minister S Iswaran getting a 12-month jail term for unlawfully accepting expensive gifts, Workers’ Party leader Pritam Singh has begun facing trial from today — and he might get up to 3 years in prison, if convicted.
The charges against Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh, 48, as reported by CNA, relate to what he said before a Committee of Privileges of the Singapore Parliament. The committee questioned Singh regarding a lie that his party colleague and former MP Raeesah Khan told the Singapore Parliament in 2021. Khan is part of the Pritam Singh trial that has begun today.
As per CNA, prosecutors have laid out their charges against Singh. “They argued that he guided Ms Khan to maintain her lie in parliament,” said the publication, based on the court proceedings.
The lie that Khan had told the Singapore Parliament pertained to her claim that she had once accompanied a rape victim to help her lodge a police report, and that the police had made disparaging comments about the victim’s clothing and alcohol consumption.
Khan made her claim during a parliamentary debate on August 3, 2021. Nearly three months later, on November 1, 2021, she admitted to the parliament that her claim was untrue.
Pritam Singh’s part in this case of Raeesah Khan’s lie unfolded when the parliamentary Committee of Privileges (COP) started investigating the conduct of Khan as an MP and, as her party leader, Singh gave evidence before the COP in December 2021.
The COP report, after wrapping up the investigation, said that Singh had given two false answers during the probe into the parliamentary conduct of Khan. That is what his current court trial is about.
Following the COP investigation, Khan resigned from both her party and her parliament seat. She was also fined SGD 35,000. She is part of the Pritam Singh trial as a witness.
Charges of “wilfully making two false answers”
As per reports, Singh faces two charges under the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act for “wilfully making two false answers on Dec 10 and Dec 15 in 2021” during the inquiry into the Khan lying case. CNA said: “He is believed to be the first to be prosecuted under the said Act.”
The two false statements allegedly made by Singh during the COP inquiry are as follows:
● Singh met Khan and other Workers’ Party members (Sylvia Lim and Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap) on August 8, 2021, shortly after Khan made her claim about the rape victim during a parliamentary debate. Singh asked Khan to clarify at some point in parliament that her claim was untrue.
● Singh spoke to Khan on October 3, 2021, when he asked her to clarify that her claim about the rape victim was a lie, if the issue came up in parliament the next day.
Prosecution chargesheets in the case — there is one chargesheet per charge against Pritam Singh — include extracts of the inquiry conversation between Singh and Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong.
Reporting live from the courtroom during today’s proceedings, CNA said that on October 4, 2021, as Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam delivered a statement in parliament on Khan’s rape victim anecdote, the Worker’s Party MP sent a frantic message to Singh, asking: “What should I do, Pritam.”
Asked in court today why she had sent that message, Khan told the prosecution, “Because I was really terrified and I didn’t know what to do.”
The prosecutor asked the witness, “Why were you prepared to lie again on October 4, 2021?”
Khan replied, “Because I was terrified of what would happen if I came forth with the truth, and the night before (on October 3), it seemed that Pritam was supportive of me continuing to lie.”
Raeesah Khan thought Pritam Singh had “all the answers”
Testifying today in court, Khan said that she had met Singh in early 2020 as a volunteer for the WP leader’s meet-the-people sessions.
Khan was then young, aged 26, and after she was persuaded by Singh to contest the elections — and then got elected as a Workers’ Party MP — she looked up to her party leader, taking guidance from him.
“I saw him as a mentor, hoping to have someone to guide me along my journey, especially during my term as MP, and I revered him, you know,” Khan told the court today. “I thought he was someone I really looked up to and… someone I thought really knew everything, you know, someone that would have all the answers.”
