WP chief Pritam Singh fined $7,000 for each of two charges after conviction for lying to committee

Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh has been fined a total of $14,000 after a district court found him guilty on two counts of lying under oath to a parliamentary committee. 

Singh, who was fined the maximum of $7,000 for each of his two charges, said he will appeal.

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, the Leader of the Opposition said he “will be running for the general election”.

The Constitution states that a sitting MP will lose his seat and be disqualified from standing for election if he is jailed for at least one year, or fined at least $10,000.

Responding to queries, the Elections Department confirmed that the sentence imposed on Singh does not reach the threshold to disqualify him as an MP.

It said disqualification is based on the sentence imposed for a single offence.

Delivering his judgment before a packed courtroom on Feb 17, Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan ruled that Singh had “wilfully” lied to the Committee of Privileges (COP) about how he dealt with the untruth that former WP MP Raeesah Khan told in Parliament on Aug 3, 2021.

Ms Khan had lied about accompanying a sexual assault victim to a police station. She repeated the false claim before the House on Oct 4 the same year.

Singh never wanted Ms Khan to clarify her lie in Parliament when he met her on Aug 8, 2021, and on Oct 3, 2021, the judge said.

In meting out the maximum fine, Judge Tan said he agreed with the prosecution that the court must send a message of the importance of giving truthful information under affirmation or oath.

The judge noted the WP chief’s motive in giving false information as one of the major considerations, and quoted the prosecution that “this was to protect (Singh’s) political capital”.

Adding that Singh had claimed trial, he said: “The fact remains that he never recanted the lie.”

While the judge accepted that Singh did not initiate the lie Ms Khan told to Parliament, he found that the WP chief did nudge her to continue the lie on Oct 4, 2021.

“Moreover, I did consider his status not only as leader of the party and of Ms Khan. He’s also a lawyer who should know, or would know, the implications of lying under affirmation.”

Singh said in a statement after his sentencing that he has instructed his legal team to file an appeal and to look into the written judgment in closer detail.

‘A lie he wilfully told’

In his judgment, Judge Tan said he accepted Ms Khan’s account of her meeting with Singh on Aug 8, 2021, during which she said he told her to take her lie to the grave.

A text message Ms Khan sent her close confidants right after the meeting that said Singh, WP chair Sylvia Lim and vice-chair Faisal Manap had “agreed that the best thing to do is to take the information to the grave” strongly supported Ms Khan’s account of what Singh told her 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 Ms Khan to clarify her lie at the Parliament sitting on Oct 4, 2021, even if it came up that day.

Singh’s lack of actions after Ms Khan doubled down on her lie is consistent with her account of how he said he would not judge her if she continued the narrative, the judge added. 

Judge Tan also accepted the prosecution’s case that it was the police’s request to interview Ms Khan on Oct 7, 2021, and former WP chief Low Thia Khiang’s subsequent advice on Oct 11, that set Singh on the path of ensuring the untruth would be clarified.

He said it was clear that Singh directed Ms Khan to clarify her lie in Parliament only after the meeting with Mr Low on Oct 11.

Evidence supporting this included Mr Low’s testimony that Singh did not tell him when they met that he had already decided to clarify the untruth in Parliament and told Ms Khan to do so, the judge said.

The judge also noted that former WP cadres Loh Pei Ying and Yudhishthra Nathan testified that when they met Singh on Oct 12 that year, he informed them that he had consulted with Mr Low, who said Ms Khan should clarify in Parliament and that the WP would survive the fallout that would follow.

Broadly, Singh’s account of events in court was inconsistent with the facts or “simply unbelievable”, said Judge Tan, who took more than two hours to deliver his judgment.

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.

He is also the first sitting opposition MP to be convicted of a criminal charge in almost 40 years.

The prosecution had sought the maximum fine of $7,000 for each of Singh’s two charges.

The defence argued for a fine of $4,000 per charge instead, noting that this was not a case where Singh told Ms Khan to lie in the first place.

The prosecution, however, argued that Singh lied when he gave evidence to the COP, and it was those lies that he was being sentenced for.

Making its case for the maximum fine, the prosecution said the fact that Singh lied under oath to the COP in order to protect his own political capital by throwing Ms Khan and his long-serving WP cadres under the bus was “undoubtedly serious and dishonourable”.

Singh’s actions could have led to Ms Khan receiving a more serious punishment, the prosecution added. She was fined $35,000 for lying to Parliament.

Singh, who was dressed in party colours, 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 Ms Khan, a former MP for Sengkang GRC.

It held hearings into the matter in December 2021, which was when Singh lied to the committee.

Judge Tan also ruled that the WP had initiated disciplinary panel (DP) proceedings against Ms Khan in November 2021 to distance Singh from his role in guiding her to maintain the untruth. 

Singh was represented by lawyer Andre Jumabhoy. Deputy Attorney-General Ang Cheng Hock, a former High Court judge, led the prosecution team.

The late J.B. Jeyaretnam was the first sitting opposition politician to be convicted of a criminal offence in post-independence Singapore.

The former WP chief was in 1986 jailed and fined $5,000 – an amount enough to disqualify him as an MP then – for making false declarations in party accounts.

In 2022, the Constitution was amended to raise the fine quantum for disqualification from $2,000 to $10,000 to account for inflation and to correspond to sentences handed down by the courts in Singapore for relevant offences today.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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