Key points from Raeesah Khan's testimony in Pritam Singh trial

Former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan is the first witness the prosecution called to testify on Oct 14, the first day of the trial of Workers' Party (WP) chief and Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh.

- Wong Pei Ting, Correspondent and Wong Shiying

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 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.

Here are seven points that surfaced from Ms Khan's testimony on the first day of the trial:

1 SINGH SUGGESTED THAT WP LEADERS AND MS KHAN TAKE HER UNTRUTH 'TO THE GRAVE'

After relating the anecdote in Parliament on Aug 3, she admitted to Singh that it was untrue on Aug 7 after persistent questioning from the WP chief.

Ms Khan testified that when they met on Aug 8, 2021, Singh initially said he should take her to the Committee of Privileges, but then changed his mind and said "this is something we would all have to take to the grave".

From that meeting, which was when she disclosed her lie to WP chairwoman Sylvia Lim and vice-chairman Faisal Manap, Ms Khan said her understanding was that she did not have to do anything.

This was after Ms Lim told her that the anecdote would probably not come up again. She also received no advice from the WP leaders on actions to be taken, whether it be to draft a speech, make a clarification, or e-mail the police with more information, she said.

Right after the meeting ended at around 12.40pm, Ms Khan sent a message to WP cadres Loh Pei Ying and Yudhishthra Nathan about what transpired, which was that she had told the WP leaders about her untruth and "they said it would be best to take the info to the grave".

Ms Khan said she did so as she had admitted her lie to the two party cadres, whom she called her close friends in WP, and wanted to keep them updated.

2 'HE WOULDN'T JUDGE ME FOR CONTINUING TO LIE'