Pritam Singh trial: Ex-WP cadre Loh Pei Ying grilled by defence

Former Workers' Party (WP) cadre Loh Pei Ying had indicated in a document submitted to the Committee of Privileges (COP) that she redacted a text message because it contained a comment about an MP unrelated to the impending hearings.

- Wong Pei Ting Correspondent and Wong Shiying

But testifying on day four of WP chief Pritam Singh's trial on Oct 17, Ms Loh admitted lying about the real reason for redacting the message, which was that it "does not look good" on fellow WP cadre Yudhishthra Nathan.

The redacted message, which Mr Nathan sent on Oct 12, 2021, had suggested that they should continue the lie that former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan told in Parliament.

Singh's lawyer Andre Jumabhoy read the message to the court. It said: "In the first place, I think we should just not give too many details. At most apologise for not having the facts about her age accurate."

Ms Loh, who was Ms Khan's secretarial assistant, gave evidence as the prosecution's second witness in the trial where Singh is fighting two charges over his alleged lies to a parliamentary committee convened in November 2021 to investigate Ms Khan's untruth in Parliament.

Ms Khan had, on Aug 3, 2021, told Parliament about how she had accompanied a sexual assault victim to a police station, where the victim was treated insensitively. She repeated the claim before the House on Oct 4 the same year, before admitting to her lie on Nov 1, 2021.

Ms Loh's admission came on the afternoon of Oct 17, when she said she hid Mr Nathan's comments.

Mr Jumabhoy sought to pin down the reason for Ms Loh's lie, putting it to her that she had blacked out the message to preserve their credibility, knowing that it would cast a "bad impression" of Mr Nathan. By extension, it also "does not look great on your group", Mr Jumabhoy posited.

To these suggestions, Ms Loh said: "I wasn't trying to preserve the integrity, but I was worried that these documents would become public and I didn't want him to be attacked for it."

At this point, she mentioned that the redaction process was verified by a senior parliamentary staff member and COP member Rahayu Mahzam from the ruling People's Action Party.