Su Fengxian, a mother of a former national table tennis player Li Hu was charged with corruption on Friday (25 November) so as to influence an STTA investigation into her son.
The 54-year-old lady was accused to have offered 2,000 euros (S$3,024) to Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) technical director Loy Soo Han to be lenient with her son.
Su stated earlier that she was going to plead guilty. However, her plea was rejected since she disputed an important fact of the charge.
When the case mentioned, Su, who is a Chinese national and Singapore Permanent Resident, told the court that she did not offer the envelope of money to Mr Loy.
Instead, through a Mandarin interpreter, she said that she had taken her envelope out of her bag but she changed her mind and put it back in.
District Judge Adam Nakhoda said since she disputed the facts of the charge, therefore, her guilty plea was rejected.
A pre-trial conference date has been set for 1 December.
Her son, a 28-year-old athlete, had his contract terminated on 24 October for violating house rules before the STTA disciplinary committee.
It was said that Li broke STTA’s code of conduct by bringing a female guest to his dormitory on several occasions.
Li, who is ranked 58th in the world, the 2003 world junior singles champion and 2014 Asian Games bronze medallist sacked by the association.
The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau said in a press statement, “Singapore adopts a zero tolerance approach towards corruption. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau takes a serious view of any corrupt practices and will not hesitate to take action against any party involved in such acts.”
If found guilty, Su faces a fine of up to $100,000 or up to five years’ jail, or both.