Pritam Singh: Singapore opposition leader guilty of lying to parliament

Singapore's opposition leader Pritam Singh has been found guilty of lying under oath to a parliamentary committee.

A court imposed the maximum fine of S$7,000 ($5,223; £4,148) for each of two charges. Singh said that he would appeal against the conviction and sentence.

The charges relate to Singh's handling of Raeesah Khan, a former lawmaker from his party, who lied to parliament in a separate case.

The verdict in this high-profile trial comes as Singapore is gearing up for its next general election, which must be held by November. Singh's Workers' Party holds nine out of 87 elected seats in parliament.

Under Singapore's constitution, any MP can lose their seat or be barred from running for office for five years if they are fined at least S$10,000 or jailed for more than a year.

The election department has since clarified that the S$10,000 threshold only applies to a single offence, according to local media. This means Singh's fines will not trigger disqualification.

"The question on most people's minds is the consequences for the upcoming election," Chong Ja-Ian, associate professor at the National University of Singapore, told the BBC.

Singh's case could either be "played up" by state media or "fizzle out" of public attention, he said.

Singh told reporters outside the court on Monday that he intended to run in the upcoming election.

The verdict on Monday, which lasted more than two hours, was delivered to a packed courtroom. Members of the press who could not fit into the courtroom, including the BBC, viewed a livestream of the verdict from a separate room.

District Judge Luke Tan, who delivered the verdict, said several pieces of evidence showed that Singh "never wanted Ms Khan to clarify [her] lie" and had "direct and intimate involvement" in guiding Khan to continue her narrative.

Prosecutors sought the maximum fine of S$7,000 for each of Singh's two charges, while the defence asked for S$4,000.

Singh, 48, maintained his innocence throughout the trial, arguing that he had wanted to give Khan time to deal with what was a sensitive issue.

Singh's case has gripped the city-state, where a usually uneventful political scene - dominated by the ruling People's Action Party - has in recent years seen a rare string of scandals.

The saga started in August 2021 when Khan claimed in parliament that she had witnessed the police misbehave towards a sexual assault victim. She later admitted that her anecdote was not true.

Khan was fined S$35,000 for lying and abusing her parliamentary privilege. She has since resigned from the party and parliament.

During a parliamentary committee investigation into the incident later that year, Khan testified that the party's leaders, including Singh, had told her to "continue with the narrative" despite finding out that it was not true. This was prior to her eventual admission.

Singh denied this, but also said that he had given Khan "too much time to settle herself before closing this issue with her".

The parliamentary committee concluded that Singh was not being truthful and referred the case to the public prosecutor.

Judge Tan said on Monday that Singh's actions after learning of Khan's lie were "strongly indicative that the accused did not want Ms Khan to clarify the untruth at some point".

Singh's Workers' Party is the opposition party with the largest presence in parliament.

The party made significant gains during the 2020 election, increasing their number of seats from six to 10 - the biggest victory for the opposition since Singapore gained independence in 1965. Singh was named the opposition leader after the polls.

One of those seats has since been vacated by Khan.

Additional reporting by Ewe Koh