Cross-examination of WP chief ends; verdict expected on Feb 17

Deputy A-G gives view of true version of events; defendant disagrees with most of it

- Wong Pei Ting Correspondent and Vanessa Paige Chelvan Correspondent

The defence on Nov 8 wrapped up its case in Workers' Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh's trial without calling new witnesses, after the prosecution spent more than 11 hours over three days cross-examining Singh on his evidence.

Drawing his cross-examination to a close, Deputy Attorney-General Ang Cheng Hock spent half an hour putting to Singh what the prosecution viewed as the true version of events of how the Leader of the Opposition handled the lie told by former WP MP Raeesah Khan, and asked if he agreed with each statement line by line.

Singh disagreed with most of them.

It is the prosecution's case that Singh tried to, on multiple occasions, cover up his involvement in Ms Khan's lie to Parliament, including by getting her to not respond to the police when they requested to interview her on Oct 7, 2021.

Mr Ang also made the case that Singh withheld the information that he knew of Ms Khan's untruth as early as Aug 7, 2021, from former WP chief Low Thia Khiang when they met on Oct 11, 2021.

Mr Low had earlier testified that he only knew in August 2023 about Singh's prior knowledge of the matter.

The prosecution said the police's Oct 7 request for Ms Khan to be interviewed and Mr Low's advice on Oct 11 for Ms Khan to tell the truth were the incidents that set Singh on the path of ensuring Ms Khan's untruth would be clarified in Parliament.

Singh is contesting two charges over his alleged lies to a parliamentary committee convened in November 2021 to look into the lying controversy involving Ms Khan.

Ms Khan had, on Aug 3, 2021, told Parliament a false anecdote that 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.