SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh sought to move his case from the State Courts to the High Court. The hearing for the transfer was heard in the High Court on Monday (Aug 26), with the Prosecution arguing against it.
The Leader of the Opposition wrote in a statement to the media his reasons for applying for the transfer and cited a precedent set by the case of S Iswaran, the former Transport Minister who faces a number of charges, including corruption.
Mr Singh pointed out that the Prosecution transferred Mr Iswaran’s case from the State Courts to the High Court. Should the former minister be dissatisfied with his case’s outcome, his recourse is to appeal to the next higher Court, the Court of Appeal.
“The effect of a transfer of a criminal case from the State Courts to the High Court is significant. An appeal from a decision made at the State Courts can only be heard by the High Court, and not the highest court of the land – the Court of Appeal – where more than one judge presides over the appeal,” wrote Mr Singh.
Mr Iswaran’s case had been transferred “due to the strong public interest,” media reported the Public Prosecutor as saying on Feb 8.
However, in the case of Mr Singh, his request to transfer his case was rejected by the Public Prosecutor as there were “no significant public interest considerations” in his case.
Mr Singh wrote, “Despite what was reported in the press on Iswaran’s case, in the course of my application, the Public Prosecutor revealed that the ‘strong public interest’ it had cited earlier was actually premised on the section of the Penal Code Iswaran was charged under, namely section 165.”
He added that since the Prosecution had asserted that section 165 applied to all of Singapore’s public servants, how the Court interprets section 165 could affect how public servants should conduct their affairs.
The WP chief also wrote that his lawyers made an argument similar to what the Public Prosecutor had made in Mr Iswaran’s case, that it should be heard In the High Court nevus in the case of an appeal, “a final pronouncement by the Court of Appeal….would be helpful in setting out the parameters of section 165.”
In his case, Mr Singh said, the basis for a transfer to the High Court applied with an even “greater force.”
Mr Singh, who faces two charges of lying to a Committee of Privileges over the case for former WP Member of Parliament Raeesah Khan, argued that he is an unprecedented case, and his lawyers have argued that it is “even more impactful than Iswaran’s case”.
Lawyers for Mr Singh have found how the Prosecution’s different treatment of what was in the public interest to be contradictory, he added, and have agreed that moving his case to the High Court would be consistent with the legal principle that “all persons in like situations will be treated alike.”
Moreover, “transferring the case to the High Court would also ensure certainty and consistency in how individuals are prosecuted by the State in situations where the public interest is evident and apparent,” he added.
The judge will deliver her decision on Mr Singh’s case on Sept 9./TISG
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