Key points from the appeal judgment

Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh lost the appeal against his conviction, with the court upholding the sentence of $14,000 in fines.

- David Sun

Mr Singh, 49, was convicted on Feb 17 on two charges for lying to the Committee of Privileges (COP) about advising former WP MP Raeesah Khan to conceal an untruth to Parliament.

On Dec 4, Court of Appeal Justice Steven Chong said that while he disagreed with Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan on some aspects, the decision to convict Mr Singh was supported by the evidence.

ABOUT THE CASE

Ms Khan lied in Parliament on Aug 3, 2021, that she had accompanied a rape victim to make a police report, and that officers handling the case had exhibited inappropriate behaviour.

She told Mr Singh that it was a lie over a phone call on Aug 7, 2021.

She repeated the lie in Parliament on Oct 4 that year.

She admitted to Parliament on Nov1, 2021, that she had been lying, and the matter was referred to the COP.

The COP proceedings focused on Ms Khan’s conduct, with Mr Singh appearing before the committee to give evidence.

The committee’s report was presented to Parliament on Feb 10, 2022, recommending that Mr Singh be referred to the Public Prosecutor to consider if he should be prosecuted for his conduct before the COP.

Mr Singh was charged on March 19, 2024, for lying to the COP and was convicted almost a year later.

GRAVE AND JUDGMENT STATEMENTS

The appeal looked largely at two statements made by Mr Singh.

The first was the “Grave Statement”, where Mr Singh told Ms Khan on Aug 8, 2021, to take the untruth “to the grave”.

This was at a meeting attended by Ms Khan and Mr Singh, and WP members Sylvia Lim and Faisal Manap.

By making the Grave Statement, it would mean he did not want Ms Khan to clarify the untruth, and would have thus lied to the COP.

The second statement in question was the “Judgment Statement”, where Mr Singh told Ms Khan, “I will not judge you”, when they met on Oct 3, 2021.