Fake Covid-19 vaccinations Defence objects to 6 police statements being admitted in court as evidence

Lawyer says they were recorded where there was threat, inducement or promise

- Christine Tan

The defence lawyer for a general practitioner (GP) at the centre of a conspiracy involving fake Covid-19 vaccines objected to six police statements being admitted in court as evidence.

This is because the statements were recorded under circumstances where there was threat, inducement or promise, said Mr Adrian Wee on the second day of Jipson Quah's trial on Dec 17.

This prompted the court to move into an ancillary hearing - or a trial within a trial - to determine the admissibility of these six statements before resuming the main trial.

Quah, 36, is fighting 17 charges that he had conspired between 2021 and 2022 to make false representations to the Health Promotion Board (HPB) about the vaccination status of 17 individuals.

He is facing a joint trial with his former clinic assistant Thomas Chua Cheng Soon, 43, and the founder of anti-vaccine group Healing the Divide, Iris Koh Hsiao Pei, 48.

The three had allegedly conspired to falsely inform HPB that patients had been given a Covid-19 vaccination when they had not.

Quah, who has been suspended from practice since March 2022, had purportedly given these patients saline shots and recorded them as having been vaccinated.

Koh and Chua are each contesting seven charges. The main trial and ancillary hearing are being heard before District Judge Paul Quan.

The six documents in dispute are Quah's third to eighth police statements, recorded between Jan 22 and Jan 29 in 2022, by investigation officer (IO) Ng Shiunn Jye from the Central Police Division.