Iswaran’s wife, a prosecution witness, in public gallery a sign there would be no trial

SINGAPORE – The army of journalists outside the Supreme Court on Sept 24 were on the lookout for former transport minister S. Iswaran, but it was his wife, Ms Kay Mary Taylor, who walked past them at 7.50am.

Dressed in black, and accompanied by relatives, she moved straight in. The first day of her husband’s scheduled trial was to take place in High Court 4C.

Ms Taylor was identified in earlier reports as one of 56 prosecution witnesses.

However, when the courtroom doors were opened to the public at 9.30am, she took a seat in the public gallery while Iswaran stood next to the dock and exchanged notes with his lawyers.

It sparked discussion among the more than 40 members of the public and journalists attending the hearing.

Witnesses are not allowed to attend court proceedings until they have finished giving evidence. They usually wait in a witness room until they have to take the stand.

At 10am, Justice Vincent Hoong started proceedings, and minutes later, Deputy Attorney-General Tai Wei Shyong revealed that Iswaran would be “taking a certain course of action” – an indication he was likely to plead guilty.

This meant that witnesses were spared the need to take the stand.

Mr Tai said the prosecution would be amending the two corruption charges Iswaran was facing to charges under

Section 165

, which makes it an offence for public servants to accept or obtain valuable items from people who they have dealings with in their official capacity.

It caused a stir in the public gallery, with whispers that it was a sign Iswaran would not be claiming trial.

At 10.45am, Iswaran told the judge he would be

pleading guilty to five charges

. He consented for another 30 charges to be taken into consideration for his sentencing on Oct 3.

Iswaran admitted to four charges of obtaining valuable items from Formula One race promoter Singapore GP’s chairman,

Mr Ong Beng Seng

, and

Mr David Lum

, managing director of mainboard-listed construction company Lum Chang Holdings.

He also admitted to one charge of obstructing the course of justice.

During the five-hour hearing, Iswaran had a stoic expression and took notes periodically.

He glanced at his family seated in the gallery from time to time and nodded at them, with his wife nodding back.

At one point during the hearing, Mr Tai crossed swords with Iswaran’s lawyer, Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, in a 15-minute exchange over the amended corruption charges.

Justice Hoong intervened several times, with Iswaran leaning forward to listen intently. At one point, he propped up his head with one hand as the arguments continued.

After a one-hour recess at 2.15pm, the judge adjourned sentencing to Oct 3.

He noted that there are no reported decisions on Section 165 offences but highlighted the case of former Selangor chief minister Mohamad Khir Toyo.

The Malaysian was sentenced to a year in jail in September 2015 after he was convicted of corruption charges, including those under Section 165 of the country’s Penal Code.

The judge requested both the prosecution and defence to furnish further submissions on the relevance of Mohamad Khir’s case to Iswaran’s case by Sept 26.

Members of the public had turned up before dawn to secure one of 45 tickets for a seat in the public gallery.

Bank worker Darren Tan, 24, was the first person in the queue. He arrived at 5am, fearing that all the tickets to enter the courtroom would be snapped up.

By 9am, all 45 tickets had been given out to members of the public, who said they were expecting sensational details to be revealed.

But two hours into the hearing, at 11.12am, Iswaran was convicted with no witnesses called.

At 3.45pm, he walked out of the courtroom after his bail was extended.

After a brief word with his relatives, his family left the Supreme Court.

Iswaran rode the escalator down four floors on his own, walked out the front door and left the building.