Former Transport Minister S. Iswaran will face trial today at 10 am, becoming the first political office-holder in Singapore in nearly five decades to be tried in court.
Iswaran, a former People’s Action Party (PAP) Member of Parliament, has maintained his innocence. He faces a total of 35 charges, including two charges of corruption involving approximately S$166,000. 32 counts are related to obtaining items valued at more than S$237,000 while serving as a public servant, and one charge is for obstructing the course of justice.
Iswaran’s legal team is led by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, one of Singapore’s most prominent defence lawyers and a former PAP MP. Singh has previously represented prominent political figures, including Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in defamation suits.
The current tranche of hearings is scheduled from 24 September to 27 September 2024, during which the court will hear evidence from several key witnesses. Among the 56 prosecution witnesses set to testify is Iswaran’s wife, Ms Kay Mary Taylor, who arrived at the High Court around 7:50 am. It remains unclear whether she will take the stand on the first day of the trial.
Ahead of the trial, the defence made a series of attempts for the prosecution to provide conditioned statements of its witnesses. A conditioned statement is a written statement used as evidence rather than oral testimony.
The defence argued that the prosecution should furnish these statements for the 56 witnesses it plans to call. However, the Court of Appeal dismissed this request on 3 September 2024, ruling that the prosecution only needs to disclose the statements of witnesses it intends to admit at trial, not every witness it calls.
The prosecution has confirmed that it does not plan to rely on conditioned statements for Iswaran’s trial. Therefore, no such statements were recorded by the witnesses, who were expected to give oral testimony instead.
The charges against Iswaran are connected to his interactions with two prominent figures in Singapore’s business community: hotel tycoon Ong Beng Seng and David Lum, managing director of Lum Chang Holdings, a mainboard-listed company.
Ong, known for his pivotal role in bringing the Formula One (F1) race to Singapore, allegedly provided Iswaran with tickets to the Singapore F1 Grand Prix, as well as tickets to sporting and entertainment events in Britain.
Iswaran was first charged on 18 January 2024 with 27 offences, primarily linked to benefits he allegedly received from Ong.
The case expanded when, on 25 March 2024, Iswaran was handed an additional eight charges involving items he reportedly obtained from David Lum. These items include luxury goods such as bottles of whisky, golf clubs, and a Brompton bicycle.
It should be noted that neither Ong Beng Seng nor David Lum, who are central to the allegations against Iswaran, have been charged with any offence.
In May 2024, Iswaran succeeded in a legal bid to consolidate all charges into a single trial.
The prosecution had initially proposed splitting the charges, with the items linked to Ong being tried separately from those linked to Lum. However, Iswaran’s defence argued for a combined trial, which the court granted. This decision sets the stage for a comprehensive trial covering all 35 charges Iswaran faces.
The former minister’s legal battle has drawn significant public attention, both because of his high-profile role and the seriousness of the accusations.
Iswaran, who had been a member of Singapore’s ruling PAP, resigned from both his role as Transport Minister and his seat as MP for West Coast GRC on 16 January 2024, just days before the initial charges were filed.
Iswaran’s trial is the first involving a political office-holder in nearly 49 years. The last such case occurred in 1975, when then-Minister for the Environment Wee Toon Boon was convicted of corruption and sentenced to four years in prison.
