Judge accepts Iswaran’s guilty plea, convicts him of charges
Former transport minister S. Iswaran has decided to plead guilty on Sept 24, on what was supposed to be the first day of his scheduled trial.
It had been slated to last several months into March 2025.
Iswaran, 62, indicated that he will plead guilty to five charges.
When the court hearing began at 10am, Iswaran’s lawyer Senior Counsel Davinder Singh said: “My client will be taking a certain course of action, in view of the fact that the prosecution is no longer proceeding with charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act.”
At about 10.05am, the court was adjourned for several minutes for the amended charges to be read to Iswaran before a plea is taken.
Iswaran had originally rejected the charges and allegations made against him and had maintained he was not guilty.
In a statement after he was first charged on Jan 18, Iswaran had said: “I am innocent and will now focus on clearing my name.”
In fresh details mentioned in court, the prosecution said in the statement of facts that Iswaran had accepted 10 Green Room tickets to a hospitality suite at the F1 race in 2017. Each ticket gives access to a fully air-conditioned seat with attached outdoor seating and alcoholic beverages, and is worth more than $4,000. He had given them to his friends and family.
The then-minister was asked how many complimentary tickets he needed on the instructions of Mr Ong Beng Seng, and had asked for 10. Mr Ong is the deputy chairman of the Singapore Grand Prix.
DAG Tai said Iswaran did not pay for the 10 tickets – worth more than $42,000 in total – and did not declare to the Government that he had got them.
In relation to another charge under Section 165, Iswaran had taken “urgent personal leave” to go on a fully paid trip to Qatar from Singapore around Dec 6, 2022.
Mr Ong had arranged for Iswaran to travel on his private jet as a guest, a flight valued at about $10,000.
He also instructed the Singapore Grand Prix to pay for Iswaran to travel back to Singapore on Dec 11, 2022, on a $5,000 commercial business class flight, as well as for him to stay at the Four Seasons Hotel Doha for more than $4,000 a night.
Iswaran did not declare to the Government that he had obtained the private jet flight, hotel stay and business class flight back to Singapore.
The judge accepts Iswaran’s guilty plea and convicts him of five charges.
Mr Singh is arguing for Iswaran to be sentenced to no more than one to five weeks’ jail for each of the charges.
In total, Mr Singh says the appropriate aggregate sentence should be no more than eight weeks’ jail.
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