The trial of Pritam Singh, leader of Singapore's opposition party and Secretary-General of the Workers' Party, for allegedly giving false testimony in the Raeesah Khan incident commenced on Monday in the Singapore State Courts.
Singh (48 years old) faces two charges under section 31(q) of the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities, and Powers) Act. Raeesah Khan was a former MP for Sengkang GRC from the Workers' Party.
After the court officials read out the two charges against the defendant, Pritam Singh, he replied: “I plead not guilty.”
In presenting the prosecution's opening statement, Senior Deputy Attorney-General Hri Kumar Nair outlined the main stance of the prosecution regarding Singh's alleged perjury.
The prosecution pointed out that Singh lied during the hearing of the Parliamentary Privileges Committee, concealing that he did not guide Raeesah Khan in clarifying her falsehoods to Parliament. The prosecution intends to call Raeesah Khan to testify in court and present text message records between them and other written evidence to prove Singh's perjury.
Hri Kumar stated that during meetings with Raeesah Khan on August 8 and October 3, 2021, Singh had no intention of having Khan clarify her falsehoods to Parliament and did not instruct her to draft a clarification statement. Singh knew the truth as early as August 7, four days after Khan first lied in Parliament, but it wasn't until November 1 that Khan finally revealed the truth to Parliament.
Additionally, former Workers' Party Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang will testify as a prosecution witness in the upcoming trials, setting up a confrontation with his successor, Pritam Singh.
According to revelations in the prosecution's opening statement, after Raeesah Khan repeated the falsehood of "accompanying a sexual assault victim to the police" in Parliament on October 4, 2021, both Singh and Party Chair Sylvia Lim visited Low Thia Khiang on October 11. It was on this day that Low first learned of Khan’s lies in Parliament.
The meeting on October 11 with Low Thia Khiang was not disclosed during the previous hearings of the Parliamentary Privileges Committee.
The prosecution stated that prior to meeting Low Thia Khiang, Singh had not instructed Khan that she needed to clarify her falsehoods nor directed her to draft a clarification statement. Therefore, when Singh testified to the Committee that he had told Khan on August 8 and October 3, 2021, that she needed to reveal the truth to Parliament, Singh was lying.
The prosecution argued that Singh committed perjury in an attempt to downplay his own responsibility.