SINGAPORE: Former transport minister S Iswaran, whose criminal trial for accepting gifts is looming , turned up at the High Court on Friday (Jul 5) in a bid to get the prosecution to hand over all the statements of the witnesses it intends to call at trial. Iswaran's lawyers, led by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, had already struck out once in this attempt in a June hearing not open to the public, but they mounted a second attempt in a criminal revision on Friday. A team of prosecutors, led by Deputy Attorney-General Tai Wei Shyong, objected strongly to Mr Singh's case, saying the defence has been changing its position.
Iswaran, a 62-year-old Singaporean, faces a total of 35 charges comprising 32 counts of obtaining valuables as a public servant, two counts of corruption and one of obstructing justice. These relate to his interactions with property tycoon Ong Beng Seng and Mr Lum Kok Seng, the managing director of Singapore-listed Lum Chang Holdings. Iswaran's lawyers - Mr Singh, Mr Navin Thevar, Mr Rajvinder Singh, Ms Sumedha Madhusudhanan and Ms Sheiffa Safi Shirbeeni - fought to have all of them heard in one trial instead of two separate ones.
The Davinder Singh Chambers lawyers had told the High Court previously that Iswaran had been dealing with "very, very dear and close friends" in the two men and did not know the gifts were "veiled gratification" . Iswaran had stated his intent to claim trial from the get-go - pleading not guilty when he was first formally charged in .
