High Court upholds WP chief Pritam Singh’s conviction

[SINGAPORE] Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh has lost his appeal against his conviction for lying to a parliamentary committee.

Court of Appeal judge Steven Chong dismissed the appeal on Dec 4, upholding Singh’s Feb 17 conviction on two charges of lying to the Committee of Privileges (COP).

The hearing lasted less than 10 minutes. Justice Chong briefly outlined his reasons in court, with a more detailed 78-page judgment issued to the media shortly after. He also thanked both prosecution and defence for their submissions, noting that the appeal was conducted “very fairly (and) in the best traditions of the Bar”.

With the hearing over, Singh, who is Workers’ Party chief, proceeded to pay his S$14,000 fine. “Might as well get it done,” he told reporters at the payment station.

Singh had been fined the maximum of S$7,000 for each charge, following a 13-day trial that concluded in February. The state courts had found him guilty of giving false testimony under oath to the COP on Dec 10 and Dec 15, 2021.

The COP had been convened to carry out an inquiry into former WP MP Raeesah Khan, who in August 2021 lied about accompanying a sexual assault victim to a police station and in October 2021 repeated the false claim before the House.

Singh’s appeal centred on findings made by the trial judge on two statements that the WP secretary-general had made during meetings with Khan on Aug 8 and Oct 3, 2021.

Justice Chong said in court on Dec 4 that he found the trial judge’s decision to convict Singh on both charges to be supported by the evidence, though he did not agree with some peripheral aspects of the evidence.

The judge said Singh had been confronted with an inconvenient truth – that a sitting MP from his party had told an untruth, and he was hoping that he would not have to deal with it. Essentially, the WP leaders were engaged in an exercise of risk assessment and damage control, he added.

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“Right till the end when the decision was made that Khan should clarify the untruth at the Nov 1, 2021 Parliament sitting...it was never (Singh’s) position that Khan should voluntarily come clean to clarify the untruth, irrespective of whether the issue would be raised in Parliament again or whether the untruth would be discovered by the Government,” he added.

Speaking to the media after leaving the Supreme Court building, Singh said he was “disappointed” with the verdict, but accepted the judgment without reservation.

“I certainly took too long to respond to Raeesah’s lie in Parliament. I take responsibility for that,” he said.

“This has been a long journey. Throughout it all, I have done my best to act with sincerity and fulfill my responsibilities to Parliament, and to Singaporeans. My commitment in that regard remains unchanged.”

He also addressed remarks he made in a CNA programme aired after the appeal hearing, in which he said his political opponents “will do whatever it takes to lower my esteem and the esteem of my party in the public eye”.

Asked about the comment, Singh said that as an opposition MP, he will have political differences with his opponents, “but those differences do not extend to tearing the system down and questioning or impugning the integrity of the courts or even civil servants”.

“That cannot be how we conduct opposition politics in Singapore,” he said.

Singh is the first sitting opposition MP to be convicted of a criminal offence in almost 40 years. THE STRAITS TIMES