Tense exchange between defence, prosecution over redacted messages

Deputy A-G says they're not relevant; lawyer says line of inquiry reasonable

- Wong Pei Ting Correspondent and Vanessa Paige Chelvan Correspondent

The trial hearing of Workers' Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh was adjourned on Oct 21 following a testy exchange between the prosecution and defence over whether redacted messages of former WP cadre Yudhishthra Nathan were relevant to the proceedings and should be tendered in court.

Singh's lawyer Andre Jumabhoy is seeking the unredacted version of Mr Nathan's message logs from Oct 4 to Oct 12, 2021. He is also asking for the redacted version of these messages given to the Committee of Privileges (COP) and the reasons for these redactions.

Mr Jumabhoy said this is a reasonable line of inquiry as it goes directly to whether the testimonies of Mr Nathan and his fellow WP cadre Loh Pei Ying, who testified last week, are credible.

“I'm not here to challenge the findings of the COP… (but) these witnesses' credibility is very much an issue,” he added.

Deputy Attorney-General Ang Cheng Hock objected, arguing that the COP's findings and the redacted messages are not relevant to the criminal trial at hand, and that Mr Jumabhoy is seeking to show that the witnesses hid evidence and “manipulated” the COP into making certain findings.

Addressing Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan, Mr Ang said the defence is “inviting Your Honour to go into the integrity of the COP process”. He added: “What will they do with (that)? They will use it for whatever purposes they want. That is the only finding that can come out of this exercise.”

After hearing both sides, the judge said he would review the message logs alongside evidence from Mr Nathan before making a decision.

Singh is fighting two charges over his alleged lies to the committee convened to investigate former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan's untruth in Parliament.