Trial for Iswaran Starts on 24 Sept & Might End in March 2025

It’s F1 weekend — and what other news would be more apt to break this weekend than an update on former transport minister S. Iswaran’s trial?

The former transport minister’s trial will start on 24 September and could end as late as March 2025. Here’s everything you need to know about it.

TLDR: Why Former Transport Minister S. Iswaran was Arrested and What He was Charged With

Unless you were living under a rock, you probably knew that former transport minister S. Iswaran was arrested by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) last year. But in case you’ve forgotten why exactly Iswaran was arrested and what he was charged with, fret not — Goody Feed’s here to get you up to speed on the whole saga again.

The 62-year-old currently faces not one, not two, but 35 criminal charges for, well, all sorts of things. To simplify things, there are three groups of charges being brought against Iswaran.

First, Iswaran faces two charges of corruption, meaning that he accepted bribes in exchange for showing favour to the bribe-giver.

Second, the former transport minister faces another 32 charges for accepting valuable items from people he is involved with in an official capacity as a public servant. This is a little different from the corruption charges — for this group of charges, it is an offence on its own to be accepting valuable items from people who Iswaran is involved with in an official capacity, even if Iswaran did not show favour to those he accepted the items from.

Investigations had revealed that Iswaran had obtained items worth more than $400,000 from two people — Mr Ong Beng Seng, a billionaire hotelier and chairman of the F1 race promoter Singapore GP, and Mr David Lum, managing director of construction company Lum Chang Holdings.

You might vaguely recall the long list of items which Iswaran had obtained from Mr Ong and Mr Lum. From tickets to F1 races to bottles of whisky, you name it, it’s probably on the list.

Third, he also faces one charge for allegedly performing an act that could likely obstruct the course of justice. This charge relates to a sum of $5,7000 which Iswaran allegedly repaid to Singapore GP for the cost of his business-class flight from Doha to Singapore, which Mr Ong had allegedly paid for first through the Singapore GP.

Of course, there are a lot more nitty-gritty details to these charges. However, generally speaking, that’s what the charges involve.

Iswaran’s Trial to Commence on 24 September

So, when is the trial of the year (or decade, or actually, even the century) going to happen?

Well, the first tranche of the trial will run from 24 September to 27 September — right after we wave goodbye to the F1 weekend. Further trial dates have also been set in November 2024, and from January to March 2025. Justice Vincent Hoong will preside over the case.

Iswaran will be defended by Mr Davinder Singh, one of Singapore’s most prominent lawyers — after all, Mr Singh has represented many other big names before, including former prime ministers Lee Kuan Yew and Lee Hsien Loong. Mr Singh was in the pioneer batch of senior counsel appointed in 1997 and also manages his own law firm, Davinder Singh Chambers.

Mr Singh also currently acts for Mr Lim Oon Kuin, the founder of Hin Leong, in the ongoing cases relating to Hin Leong’s collapse.

But who’s on the other team? Well, the prosecution team will be led by Deputy Attorney-General Tai Wei Shyong, who boasts a long list of accolades as well. Mr Tai has served as a deputy public prosecutor in the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and as an assistant registrar of the Supreme Court. He was appointed deputy attorney-general in 2021 and made senior counsel the same year.

Mr Tai has also held several key appointments in the public service, including deputy secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs and director of the Internal Security Department.

Essentially, what we have here are two OP lawyers lah. We can only imagine how exhilarating Iswaran’s trial is going to be.

And to spice things up even more, there’s a long list of big names who will be taking the stand as witnesses during Iswaran’s trial. The prosecution has called 56 witnesses — aside from Mr Ong Beng Seng and Mr David Lum, Mr Ong’s wife and Iswaran’s wife have also been called as the prosecution’s witnesses.

Macam assembling the Avengers sia.

The Singapore GP director Mr Mok Chee Liang, as well as deputy chairman of Singapore GP Mr Colin Syn, will also be taking the stand as witnesses.

Well, we suppose it’s going to be a busy period for Mr Mok Chee Liang and Mr Colin Syn — from the race paddocks straight to the High Court.

Iswaran: Items from Mr Ong and Mr Lum were Accepted in a Genuinely Personal Capacity

So, we know what Iswaran has been charged with. Do we have an idea of what Iswaran is going to say about it?

Well, in relation to the second group of charges (the 32 charges for accepting valuable items from people who Iswaran was involved with in an official capacity), it appears that Iswaran is going to say that he had accepted the gifts in a genuinely personal capacity.

You see, while public servants cannot accept or obtain anything of value for free or for inadequate payment from people they are involved with in an official capacity, the code of conduct for ministers, which has been in place since 1954, states that ministers are not prevented from accepting gifts from family or personal friends in a genuinely personal capacity.

In other words, Iswaran is going to say that he had accepted the long list of items from Mr Ong and Mr Lum as a friend, and not in his official capacity as a minister.

As for what Iswaran is going to say to the other charges, we’ll wait and see as the trial unfolds in the coming week.