Judge doesn’t allow release of ex-WP cadre’s unredacted messages: Key points from day 8 of Pritam Singh’s trial

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SINGAPORE – A request by Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh’s lawyer to obtain a full set of message logs from prosecution witness Yudhishthra Nathan was dismissed by the judge as the trial adjourned resume on October 23.

Deputy Chief District Judge Luke Tan said he saw no legal basis for Mr Nathan’s unredacted messages to the Committee on Privileges (COP) to be disclosed to the defence. That’s because the messages don’t meet disclosure requirements under case law.

Singh’s lawyer, Andre Jumabhoy, had earlier in the week sought the unredacted and redacted versions of Mr. Nathan at the COP, arguing that they went directly to whether the testimonies of Mr. Nathan and his WP colleague Loh Pei Ying, who both attended Ms. Khan in her role as an MP is credible.

The judge said that after carefully examining the documents, he was satisfied that none of the messages were relevant to Singh’s guilt or innocence. Because the redactions were made for the purpose of the COP’s specific investigation, the scope and basis of the redactions were also not relevant to the current criminal trial.

Judge Tan also noted that a list of unredacted messages from Mr Nathan, as well as the full list of redacted and unredacted messages from Ms Loh Pei Ying, have already been admitted as evidence for the trial.

While there is “no doubt” that Mr Nathan’s credibility, as with the credibility of all witnesses, is an issue, the messages that are already part of the trial evidence can and have been used to assess- yes, he added.

Singh is contesting two charges over his alleged lies to the COP, which was convened in November 2021 to investigate former Sengkang WP MP Raeesah Khan’s lie in Parliament.

On 3 August 2021, Ms Khan told Parliament how she had accompanied a sexual assault victim to a police station, where the victim was treated in an insensitive manner. He repeated the claim before the House on 4 October of the same year, before admitting his lie on 1 November 2021.

Former WP secretary-general Low Thia Khiang took the stand in the afternoon, after the defense finished its cross-examination of Nathan. Here are the key points from Mr Nathan’s evidence on 23 October:

1. WP cadres did not tell COP about “important” discussion with Singh

Mr Nathan questioned why neither he nor Ms Loh had told the COP what they later told the police, which was that Singh had told them at a meeting on 12 October 2021 that the WP was changing his strategy on Mrs. Khan’s lie.

Mr Nathan had previously testified that the WP leader had told him at that meeting that the party now wanted Ms Khan to come clean, as the Government might already have known that Ms Khan’s story was not true, and that it would be “bad karma” to keep her. to the lie

Jumabhoy asked why Mr. Nathan did not mention this at the COP, as the old WP cadre had agreed that this change in strategy was significant.

The defense lawyer pointed out that the Minister of Culture, Community and Youth, Edwin Tong, had specifically asked the COP if anything more relevant had happened at that meeting on October 12, and had not mentioned it to the commission .

Mr. Nathan replied that it was a very long meeting and it was not something that crossed his mind when he was in front of the COP.

Mr. Jumbahoy then told Mr. Nathan that he didn’t mention it at the COP because this exchange with Singh didn’t happen and that he had made it up. Mr. Nathan disagrees.