Iswaran seeks to get prosecution to provide all its witnesses' statements

Prosecution says it is not obliged to do so, and has given list of witnesses and roles

- Nadine Chua

Former transport minister S. Iswaran, who faces 35 charges, on July 5 tried to compel the prosecution to provide conditioned statements for all 56 prosecution witnesses.

A conditioned statement is a mode of giving evidence by written statement, rather than by oral testimony.

Iswaran, whose charges involve more than $400,000 worth of items, arrived at the High Court with his defence team at around 9.30am.

The prosecution team argued they had provided a list of the 56 witnesses and their roles in the case, and are not obliged to provide the conditioned statements of these witnesses.

One of the seven prosecution witnesses named in court documents was Iswaran’s wife Kay Mary Taylor.

The prosecution said it had disclosed to the defence seven statements recorded from her by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau during investigations.

Of the 35 charges Iswaran faces, 27 relate to hotel and property tycoon Ong Beng Seng.

Eight charges relate to Mr David Lum Kok Seng, the managing director of mainboard-listed Lum Chang Holdings.

Of the charges relating to Mr Ong, 24 are under Section 165 of the Penal Code, while two are for corruption and one is for obstructing the course of justice.

Section 165 makes it an offence for a public servant to accept or obtain any valuable thing, for free or for inadequate payment, from anyone connected with his official duties.

Under the law, the prosecution has to produce a list of exhibits, conditioned statements of witnesses that the prosecution intends to admit at trial, and investigation statements made by the accused.

Iswaran’s legal team, led by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, had earlier argued for the High Court to order the prosecution to file and serve statements of all the witnesses whom it intends to call at the trial.

This application before an assistant registrar was dismissed on June 11.