Iswaran allowed to travel to Australia to help son settle in
Former transport minister S. Iswaran has been granted permission to leave Singapore to settle his son into university in Australia, three weeks after he was handed 27 charges, which he pleaded not guilty to.
On Feb 8, Iswaran, who is out on $800,000 bail, turned up at the State Courts at around 2.30pm to make an application to leave jurisdiction from Feb 16 to March 4.
The prosecution imposed several conditions to this application, including a cash bail of $500,000. Iswaran must also provide his itinerary and his address overseas to the investigation officer (IO) and remain contactable by the IO.
He must also surrender his travel documents within 24 hours of his return to Singapore.
Iswaran’s bailor, who was identified in court as Mr Ng, agreed to those conditions before the judge.
Iswaran’s case will also be transferred to the High Court, with the prosecution saying this was due to the strong public interest in this case.
Deputy Chief Prosecutor Jiang Ke-Yue and Deputy Public Prosecutor Kelvin Chong did not elaborate on this. Chief Prosecutor Tan Kiat Pheng, who leads the prosecution team in this case, was not present in court.
Senior Counsel Davinder Singh from Davinder Singh Chambers, who is leading the defence team for Iswaran, was also not in court.
Defence lawyer Navin Shanmugaraj Thevar requested an early trial for his client so the “evidence can be fully aired and the matter decided as soon as possible”.
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