WP chief Pritam Singh lied to downplay his responsibility in Raeesah Khan’s untruth, says prosecution
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SINGAPORE - After he found out former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan had lied in Parliament,
In reality, Singh had, on two different occasions, told Ms Khan to maintain her lie,
This meant that in attempting to downplay his own responsibility in Ms Khan’s lying controversy, he had provided false testimony to the Committee of Privileges, it added.
Ms Khan admitted in Parliament on Nov 1, 2021, that she had misled Parliament on Aug 3 and Oct 4, 2021, when she claimed and then restated that she had accompanied a sexual assault victim to a police station, where the victim was treated insensitively.
She had first disclosed her lie to Singh on Aug 7, 2021.
The committee that investigated Ms Khan’s lie held hearings for seven days between Dec 2 and Dec 22, 2021, and its report was debated in Parliament on Feb 15, 2022, which was when the House resolved to refer Singh to the public prosecutor for a further probe.
Singh was charged on March 19, 2024. He is contesting two charges under the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act, which makes it an offence to lie in response to questions posed by Parliament or its committee.
If convicted, he could be fined up to $7,000, jailed for up to three years, or both, on each charge.
Calling on Ms Khan as the trial’s first witness, the prosecution sought to show how Singh and other WP leaders had, in meetings with her on Aug 8 and Oct 3, 2021, told her to keep to her lie, and had advised her to clarify her untruth only on Oct 12 that year.
From Aug 9 to Oct 3, nothing was done in relation to any public statements she should make on the matter.
But after Oct 11, the party’s leaders were deeply involved in preparing her public statements. These included nine drafts of a personal statement that Ms Khan made in Parliament on Nov 1 admitting to her untruth.
In his opening statement, Deputy Attorney-General Ang Cheng Hock said the prosecution’s witnesses will include former WP chief Low Thia Khiang.
Mr Low was informed of Ms Khan’s untrue anecdote to Parliament by Singh and WP chairwoman Sylvia Lim on Oct 11, 2021.
Mr Ang said Singh, 48, lied to the committee in December 2021 about what he wanted Ms Khan to do about her Aug 3, 2021, untruth in Parliament.
Contrary to what he told the committee, Singh had, at the Aug 8 meeting, been prepared for Ms Khan and the WP leaders to “take (the matter) to the grave”.
“It was clear to Ms Khan then that her party leaders did not want her to clarify the untruth and that she could leave the matter be,” Mr Ang said.
When they met again on Oct 3, Singh did not tell Ms Khan she should clarify the matter if it came up in Parliament the next day, said Mr Ang. Instead, Singh gave Ms Khan the impression that she could choose to continue with her narrative and that he would not judge her if she did so.
Singh, a trained lawyer and experienced politician, had “even on his account to the Committee of Privileges” told Ms Khan that he would not judge her, Mr Ang stressed. “I think that is self-explanatory,” he said.
“We will show that the inexorable conclusion to be drawn is that the accused had guided Ms Khan on Oct 3, 2021, to maintain the untruth if the matter was raised in Parliament on Oct 4, 2021,” he said.
When Singh, Ms Lim and Ms Khan met in the evening of Oct 4 after that day’s Parliament sitting, neither WP leader told Ms Khan to clarify the untruth. Instead, it is the prosecution’s case that Singh had told Ms Khan that it was “too late” to do so, Mr Ang said.
The trial, which has been fixed for 16 days until Nov 13, is being heard before Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan at the State Courts.
Before trial proceedings began proper, Singh’s charges were read to him again, and the WP chief reiterated his earlier not-guilty plea before a courtroom with almost 40 people in the gallery.
The WP chief was seated a row behind his lawyers. His father Amarjit Singh, a former district judge who is part of his legal team, was seated beside him. Notable figures in the gallery included WP MPs Faisal Manap, Gerald Giam, Jamus Lim and Louis Chua, and social media influencer Wendy Cheng, better known as Xiaxue.
Mr Ang said “there was simply no way” that Singh intended for Ms Khan’s lies to be clarified when Parliament sat on Oct 4, 2021, as the accused had claimed.
This was because no preparatory steps were taken then, compared with after the Oct 11, 2021, meeting that involved Mr Low.
At that meeting, Mr Low advised Singh and Ms Khan to clarify the untruth in Parliament as soon as possible.
Subsequently, Ms Khan underwent “careful preparations” in the lead-up to her eventual clarification to Parliament, noted the prosecution.
The WP central executive committee (CEC) also met on Oct 29, 2021, and heard Ms Khan deliver a draft of the statement that she would read in Parliament, and the CEC members had the opportunity to comment on the draft.
Mr Ang noted that there was no discussion about the untrue anecdote between Singh and Ms Khan from Aug 8 to Oct 3, 2021, let alone the fact that it ought to be clarified in Parliament.
“September came and went. We come to October. Between Aug 8 and Oct 2, silence by the accused person. Not a whisper from him about this untruth, what to do, whether (Ms Khan) had to correct it, how to correct it. It’s as if the matter had been buried,” Mr Ang told the court.
After the Oct 11 meeting with Mr Low – who remains a member of the WP CEC – Singh, Ms Khan and Ms Lim met a day later. That was when Singh and Ms Lim told Ms Khan that the issue would not go away and that she should clarify the untruth in Parliament, said the prosecution.
The prosecution’s case is thus that until Oct 11, 2021, none of WP’s leaders had instructed Ms Khan to clarify her untruth with the police or in Parliament, Mr Ang added.
Singh is represented by former prosecutor Andre Jumabhoy and Mr Aristotle Emmanuel Eng Zhen Yang, from Mr Jumabhoy’s law firm.
Other than Mr Low and Ms Khan, the prosecution said it would call two former WP cadres, Ms Loh Pei Ying and Mr Yudhishthra Nathan, as witnesses.
Both had assisted Ms Khan in her MP duties and had “several important interactions” with her and Singh. For instance, Ms Khan had updated them via WhatsApp shortly after her Oct 3 meeting with the WP leaders that “they’ve agreed that the best thing to do is to take the information to the grave”.
“The totality of the evidence will demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that (Singh) had falsely testified on the two matters set out in the charges, and (he) ought therefore to be convicted of both the charges,” said Mr Ang.
The prosecution said it would be able to wrap up Ms Khan’s evidence on the morning of Oct 15, which means it would be the defence’s turn to cross-examine the former MP.
