Judge bars disclosure of former WP executive’s unexpurgated messages: Key points from day 8 of Pritam Singh trial

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SINGAPORE – An application by Workers’ Party (WP) leader Pritam Singh’s lawyer for a full set of message logs of prosecution witness Yudhishthra Nathan was rejected by the judge when the trial resumed on 23 october.

Senior Deputy District Judge Luke Tan said he saw no legal basis for Mr Nathan’s unredacted messages to the Committee on Privileges (COP) to be disclosed to the defence. In fact, the messages do not meet the disclosure requirements provided for by case law.

Singh’s lawyer, Andre Jumabhoy, had earlier in the week requested the unexpurgated and redacted versions of Mr Nathan’s message logs at the COP, arguing they were aimed directly at whether Mr Nathan’s and of her fellow WP executive Loh Pei Ying, both of whom helped Ms Khan in her duties as an MP, are credible.

The judge said that after carefully reviewing the documents, he was satisfied that none of the messages were relevant to Singh’s guilt or innocence. Since the redactions were made for the purposes of the specific investigation conducted by the COP, the scope and basis of the redactions were also not relevant to the current criminal trial.

Justice Tan also noted that a list of Mr Nathan’s unredacted messages, as well as the full list of Ms Loh Pei Ying’s redacted and unredacted messages, have already been admitted as evidence at trial.

While there is “no doubt” that Mr Nathan’s credibility – like that of all witnesses – is an issue, the messages which are already part of the trial evidence can and have been used to assess this, he said. -he added.

Singh is contesting two charges over his alleged lies at the COP, which was convened in November 2021 to investigate former Sengkang WP MP Raeesah Khan’s lies in Parliament.

Ms Khan had, on August 3, 2021, told Parliament how she accompanied a victim of sexual assault to a police station, where the victim was treated insensitively. She reiterated this claim in the House on October 4 of the same year, before admitting her lie on November 1, 2021.

Former WP secretary-general Low Thia Khiang took the stand in the afternoon, after the defense finished its cross-examination of Mr Nathan. Here are the key points from Mr. Nathan’s testimony on October 23:

1. WP executives did not speak at the COP about a “meaningful” discussion with Singh

Mr Nathan was asked why neither he nor Ms Loh told the COP what they then told police, namely that Singh told them in a meeting on October 12, 2021 that the WP was changing its strategy regarding Ms Khan’s lie.

Mr Nathan had earlier said that the WP leader had told him at that meeting that the party now wanted Ms Khan to confess the truth, as the Government may already have known that Ms Khan’s anecdote was false and that it would be “bad karma” to keep it. to lies.

Mr Jumabhoy wondered why Mr Nathan had not spoken about it at the COP, given that the former WP executive had agreed that this change in strategy was important.

The defense lawyer noted that the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Edwin Tong, had specifically asked him during the COP whether anything significant had happened at that meeting on 12 October, and he had not spoken to the committee about it.

Mr Nathan responded that the meeting had been very long and that this was not something that had crossed his mind when he was in front of the COP.

Mr Jumbahoy then informed Mr Nathan that he had not spoken about it at the COP because this exchange with Singh had not taken place and that he had made it up. Mr. Nathan disagreed.