Mar 25, 2024: Iswaran receives eight new charges
The former minister is accused of obtaining S$19,000 worth of items, including bottles of whisky, golf clubs and a Brompton bicycle from Lum Kok Seng, the managing director of Lum Chang Holdings.
It is the parent company of Lum Chang Building Contractors, which was involved in several government projects.
In 2016, it won a S$325 million contract for works at Tanah Merah MRT station. That contract was named in the fresh charge sheets.
In a bourse filing, Lum Chang Holdings said that Mr Lum had informed the board that he attended “several interviews” with CPIB in relation to its probe into Iswaran.
“No charges have been filed against Mr Lum nor has any restriction been imposed on Mr Lum by the CPIB,” it added.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers told CNA at the time that it would “take a decision in respect of the investigations against Mr Lum” after the completion of Iswaran’s case, similar to what it said about billionaire Ong Beng Seng.
May 8, 2024: Iswaran wins his bid to have all 35 of his charges heard in a single trial instead of two separate trials.
Jul 5, 2024: Iswaran turns up at the High Court in a bid to get the prosecution to hand over all the statements of the witnesses that it intends to call at trial.
Iswaran’s lawyers had already struck out once in this attempt in a June hearing not open to the public.
Jul 19, 2024: A High Court judge tosses out Iswaran’s bid to compel the prosecution to hand over statements of all its witnesses.
Aug 12, 2024: The trial date is fixed for Sep 10 to Sep 13, 2024.
Sep 3, 2024: Iswaran fails in his third attempt to compel the prosecution to provide statements of all its witnesses,
Sep 5, 2024: Less than a week before the trial is set to start, the Attorney-General’s Chambers announces that the trial will be moved to Sep 24.
Both the prosecution and defence had requested the court to adjourn the start of the hearing.
Sep 24, 2024: Iswaran pleads guilty
Iswaran pleaded guilty on what was expected to be the first day of his criminal trial.
Two corruption charges were amended to lesser charges under Section 165, which forbids all public servants from obtaining any valuable thing from someone involved with them in an official capacity, and one charge of obstruction of justice.
He pleaded guilty to four charges under Section 165 and one charge of obstruction of justice.
Another 30 charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing.
The prosecution was seeking a total sentence of six to seven months’ jail, while the defence is seeking no more than eight weeks’ jail.
Sentencing was adjourned to Oct 3.
Oct 3, 2024: Iswaran gets jail
Iswaran was given a jail term of 12 months, a sentence that was heavier than what the prosecution had asked for.
The defence had asked for no more than eight weeks’ jail, while the prosecution pushed for six to seven months’ imprisonment.
Justice Vincent Hoong said he had considered submissions on sentence from both prosecution and defence but was “ultimately unable to agree with both the positions taken”.
“I’m of the view it is appropriate to impose a sentence in excess of both parties’ positions,” said Justice Hoong, adding that taking the submission of either prosecution or defence would result in a “manifestly inadequate sentence”.
Mr Singh asked for the jail term to be deferred to 4pm on Oct 7. He stressed that this was subject to the defence taking instructions from Iswaran, alluding to the possibility of an appeal.
He remained out on bail of S$800,000.
