WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT
After Mr Jumabhoy closed the defence’s case, parties discussed court dates for closing and reply submissions to be uploaded.
Closing submissions are documents where the prosecution and the defence reiterate their cases. Reply submissions are documents where each side replies to the other’s closing submissions.
Thereafter, the court can reconvene to hear oral arguments for these submissions or proceed directly to a verdict.
Before Judge Tan, both sides said they could not come to an agreement on the timeline. Mr Jumabhoy asked for closing submissions to be uploaded by Jan 13, 2025, and for replies to be uploaded by Feb 17, citing how members of the team will be on leave at various points in time, including Singh, who will be on leave from Dec 3 to Dec 15.
Judge Tan then noted that members of the defence team did not have to be together all the time to work on submissions and Mr Ang said that the interval was too long.
The judge then told Mr Ang that there was nothing to stop the prosecution from submitting its documents earlier, to laughter in the court.
Eventually, the judge asked for closing submissions to be uploaded by Jan 13 and replies to be made by Jan 31.
He fixed the verdict for Feb 17, but left it up to parties to arrange with the court if they needed a hearing before that for oral arguments.
If convicted, Singh, who is an MP for Aljunied GRC, faces up to three years’ jail, a fine of up to S$7,000 (US$5,290), or both for each charge.
The prosecution has said that it will only be seeking a fine for each charge, but has not specified the quantum it will seek.
Under the Constitution, anyone fined at least S$10,000 or jailed for at least a year is disqualified from standing for election to become a member of parliament.
A sitting MP who receives such penalties will lose their seat. The disqualification lasts for five years.
