Leader of the Opposition and Workers' Party chief Pritam Singh leaving the State Courts on Oct 22, with one of his lawyers Aristotle Emmanuel Eng Zhen Yang. - ST
SINGAPORE: The trial of Workers’ Party (WP) chief and Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh will not sit for the day as the court heard that his lawyer, Andre Jumabhoy, is sick.
After over an hour’s delay to Oct 22’s proceedings, Singh’s other lawyer, Mr Aristotle Emmanuel Eng Zhen Yang, told the court that Jumabhoy was unwell and had received a medical certificate stating he is unfit for court for two days.
Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan approved the defence’s application for the trial to be stood down until the afternoon of Oct 23.
Eng said he would update the court in the morning on Jumabhoy’s situation, and whether proceedings can resume at 2.30pm on Oct 23.
Singh’s trial was supposed to resume at 11am on Oct 22, but was delayed till about 12.20pm as lawyers from both sides met the judge in chambers.
Both the prosecution and the defence had been anticipating the judge’s decision on an application that Jumabhoy had made the day before, to have former WP cadre Yudhishthra Nathan’s unredacted messages from Oct 4 to Oct 12, 2021, tendered in court.
Jumabhoy had also asked for the redacted version of these messages between Nathan, fellow WP cadre Loh Pei Ying, and Ms Raeesah Khan, and the reasons Nathan had given to the Committee of Privileges (COP) for making the redactions.
This was a reasonable line of inquiry as it goes directly to whether the testimonies of Nathan and Loh are credible, said Jumabhoy.
The prosecution had objected to the application, arguing that the COP’s findings and the redacted messages are not relevant to the criminal trial.
Deputy Attorney-General Ang Cheng Hock noted that the first charge that Singh faces has to do with what happened in his meeting with Khan on Aug 8, 2021, while the second charge has to do with what happened at a second meeting on Oct 3, 2021. The redacted messages were all from after this time.
Judge Tan said on Oct 21 that part of the prosecution’s case relies on the Oct 12 meeting between Singh, Nathan and Loh, and as such the credibility of the two WP cadres is an issue, as “it goes to whether their evidence is to be believed or not”.
The judge said he would review the message logs alongside evidence from Nathan before making a decision.
Singh is contesting two charges over his alleged lies to a parliamentary committee convened in November 2021 to investigate former Sengkang MP Raeesah Khan’s untruth in Parliament.
Khan had, on Aug 3, 2021, told Parliament about how she had accompanied a sexual assault victim to a police station, where the victim was treated insensitively. She repeated the claim before the House on Oct 4 the same year, before admitting to her lie on Nov 1, 2021.
For each charge, Singh faces a maximum fine of $7,000, a jail term of up to three years, or both.
The defence is expected to wrap-up its cross-examination of Nathan on Oct 23. After the prosecution is done re-examining Nathan, it is expected to call former WP secretary-general Low Thia Khiang as the next witness. - The Straits Times/ANN
