Pritam Singh trial Judge disallows disclosure of ex-WP cadre's unredacted messages

He says none of the messages are relevant to Singh’s guilt or innocence

- Wong Pei Ting Correspondent and Vanessa Paige Chelvan Correspondent

An application by Workers' Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh's lawyer to get a full set of message logs by prosecution witness Yudhishthra Nathan was disallowed by the judge when the trial resumed on Oct 23.

Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan said he saw no basis in law for Mr Nathan's unredacted messages to the Committee of Privileges (COP) to be disclosed to the defence. This is as the messages do not meet the requirements for disclosure under case law.

Singh's lawyer Andre Jumabhoy had earlier in the week sought both the unredacted and redacted versions of Mr Nathan's message logs to the COP, arguing that they went directly to whether the testimonies of Mr Nathan and his fellow WP cadre Loh Pei Ying, who both assisted former Sengkang WP MP Raeesah Khan in her duties as an MP, are credible.

The judge said that having carefully examined the documents, he was satisfied that none of the messages were relevant to Singh's guilt or innocence. As the redactions were done for the purpose of the specific inquiry by the COP, the scope and basis of the redactions were also not relevant to the current criminal trial.

Judge Tan also noted that a list of unredacted messages by Mr Nathan, as well as the full list of redacted and unredacted messages by Ms Loh Pei Ying, has already been admitted as evidence for the trial.

While there is "no doubt" that Mr Nathan's credibility as with the - credibility of all witnesses is an issue, the messages that are already part of the trial's evidence can and have been used to gauge this, he added.

Singh is contesting two charges over his alleged lies to the COP, which was convened in November 2021 to investigate Ms Khan's untruth in Parliament.