Singapore’s Pritam Singh appeals against conviction for lying to parliament

Singapore’s Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh on Tuesday launched an appeal against a conviction for lying under oath to a parliamentary committee, for which he was fined S$14,000 (US$10,735).

In February, the Workers’ Party (WP) chief, 49, was found guilty of two counts of giving false testimonies to the committee that was scrutinising a lie told by the party’s former member of parliament Raeesah Khan.

He pleaded not guilty and received the maximum fine of S$7,000 for each charge following a 13-day trial.

On Tuesday, Singh arrived at the Supreme Court dressed in a blue shirt to appeal his case before Justice Steven Chong in front of a packed courtroom.

In a similar line of argument from the trial, Singh’s lawyer Andre Jumabhoy took the court through instances in which Khan was asked about the party leadership’s reaction to her lie and noted that she had not consistently said that Singh told her to “take the lie to the grave”.

Jumabhoy argued that the trial judge erred in finding Khan’s evidence “unusually convincing”.

However, the judge countered that the fact that Khan does not say Singh said to take it to the grave every time does not mean it was not uttered.