SINGAPORE — Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam stated on Tuesday (7 February) that the police are still in the process of investigating the conduct of Workers’ Party (WP) secretary-general Pritam Singh and vice-chair Faisal Manap in relation to former party member Raeesah Khan’s hearings before a parliamentary committee.
The minister stated this in response to a parliamentary question from Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim, Member of Parliament (MP) for Chua Chu Kang Group Representative Constituency (GRC), who asked the Minister for Law whether any update can be provided on the Attorney-General Chamber (AGC)’s investigations or decision pursuant to the recommendations made in the Report of the Committee of Privileges.
The parliament voted to refer the two opposition party leaders to the Public Prosecutor, or the Attorney-General, for further probe last February, in light of the recommendations from a 1,180-page report prepared by the Committee which was filled by mostly members of the People’s Action Party (PAP),
The Committee convened to look into lies told by former WP Member of Parliament Raeesah Khan, then an MP for Sengkang GRC, in Parliament in August 2021 when she claimed to have accompanied a sexual assault victim to a police station. She then told the House that the police mishandled the case.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan pressed her to provide the House with the details. However, she declined, saying that she did not want the victim to relive her trauma.
Mr Shanmugam then repeated the question in the House in October. Again, Ms Khan refused to answer, citing confidentiality reasons.
Later in November, Ms Khan admitted to lying about the case and apologised in Parliament. She told the House that she herself was a survivor of sexual assault and had heard about the supposed victim’s experience at the police station during a support group session she attended.
Leader of the House Indranee Rajah then referred Ms Khan’s conduct to Parliament’s Committee of Privileges.
In December last year, Ms Khan, Mr Singh and Mr Faisal, as well as WP chair Sylvia Lim, Sengkang GRC MP Jamus Lim and WP members Loh Pei Ying, Yudhishthra Nathan and Lim Hang Ling, appeared before the committee in several hearings sessions where the WP MPs were grilled by PAP Minister Edwin Tong and other members of the committee.
After the hearings, a 1,180-page report was submitted by the Committee, and Parliament voted in favour of the committee’s recommendation to levy a fine of S$35,000 against Ms Raeesah. The committee then found Ms Khan guilty of abuse of privilege for lying in Parliament on 3 August and for repeating the lie on 4 October.
She has since resigned as MP for Sengkang GRC.
In favour of the committee’s recommendation, the House voted for Mr Singh and Mr Faisal to also be referred to the Public Prosecutor to “consider if criminal proceedings ought to be instituted” on 15 February.
Both men were then referred to the police for investigation by the Attorney-General.
The police released a statement in April last year, saying that they had been “going through the evidence provided by Parliament”.
They also stressed that they would be engaging persons relevant to the case as part of the investigations into the possible offences disclosed.
At the same time, Ms Indranee Rajah, Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office has told the Parliament that AGC and the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) could not proceed with the prosecution of the six former executives of Keppel and Offshore Marine Ltd because there was insufficient evidence, despite having a plea agreement, and confession by one of the six in court.
