Singaporean Opposition Leader Pritam Singh appeared in court on Tuesday, local time (Mar. 19), after being charged with two alleged violations of the city-state's Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act.
According to local media, Singh—who is also the leader of the Workers' Party (WP), which has a handful of seats in Singapore's unicameral parliament—was accused of falsely testifying at the Committee of Privileges hearings involving former MP Raeesah Khan, charges to which Singh has since pleaded not guilty.
Case Timeline
The case surfaced when Khan, a first-time lawmaker who won the collective seat of Sengkang in the 2020 general election, gave a speech on August 3, 2021, over her party's motion on gender equality.
She alleged that a police officer made inappropriate comments about a sexual assault victim she had accompanied to the police station. However, Khan was unable to substantiate this when asked by ministers and the police.
Three months later, she admitted to parliament that she had lied, prompting House Leader Indranee Rajah (PAP-Tanjong Pagar GRC) to file a complaint against her and refer her to the Committee of Privileges.
Khan eventually resigned from parliament and her party on November 30, 2021.
Singh then revealed that in December, party leaders knew that Khan had lied in a parliamentary speech a week after her Aug. 3 speech. She also allegedly repeated her lie in October 2021 and did not set the record straight in parliament until Nov. 1 that year.
In its final report on Feb 10, 2022, the Committee of Privileges recommended that Singh and WP vice-chairman Faisal Manap be referred to the public prosecutor for lying while testifying under oath.
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Singh's Response to Charges
While the WP did not immediately respond to Singh's charges, the opposition leader previously rejected the Committee of Privileges' findings, calling out "gaps and omissions" in the report, which he said suggested political partisanship.
When the Straits Times asked him why he was coming to court, Singh answered: "Why would someone come to the State Courts?"
During the parliamentary debate on the Committee of Privileges' final report, Singh argued that the Committee of Privileges had focused on Khan's "uncorroborated testimony" that she was instructed by the WP leadership to never reveal that she had lied to parliament.
If found guilty, Singh might be imprisoned for up to three years, fined up to S$7,000 ($5,223.82), or both for each charge.
"As we have informed Mr. Pritam Singh, the prosecution's position, based on the evidence presently available and considering the totality of the circumstances, is that we will be asking the court to impose a fine for each of the charges if Mr. Singh is convicted," a spokesperson for the Attorney-General's Chambers said in response to media queries. The spokesperson added that it would be up to the court to decide if Singh was guilty of the charges.
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