Iswaran sentenced to 1 year's jail, judge says prosecution & defence requested 'manifestly inadequate' sentences

Former transport minister S Iswaran was sentenced to a year's jail on Oct. 3, 2024.

He is the first cabinet minister in Singapore to be sentenced to imprisonment.

Delivering the sentence in court, presiding judge Vincent Hoong noted that the 62-year-old obtained for himself valuable items from two people — Ong Beng Seng and Lum Kok Seng — despite knowing that they were involved in business transactions that he was related to in his official capacity.

The judge added that a public servant who appears to have "fallen below the standards of integrity and accountability" could also undermine trust and confidence in public institutions, which might adversely affect the government's ability to discharge its functions.

He then concluded that he would impose a longer sentence what both the prosecution and defence requested; six to seven months, and eight weeks respectively.

The 62-year-old has been ordered to serve his 12-month sentence from Oct. 7.

He must surrender himself at 4pm at the State Courts.

Sentenced to 12 months' jail

On Sep. 24, Iswaran pleaded guilty to five charges: four under Section 165 of the Penal Code, and one charge of obstruction of justice.

Two corruption charges were amended by the Attorney-General's Chambers. Another 30 charges were taken into consideration in sentencing.

The former minister was previously handed 35 charges, including two under the Prevention of Corruption Act, after he was accused of corruptly receiving gifts worth over S$400,000 from Ong and Lum.

At the time, he denied the charges and allegations, and reiterated that he was innocent.

During the hearing, Iswaran's defence lawyer Davinder Singh asked for an eight-week jail term, citing his contributions to Singapore as a former transport minister and saying that he had caused either no or minimal harm through his actions.

In comparison, the prosecution said that Iswaran's acts had a "significant impact" on the government's reputation, and called for a six- to seven-month jail term.

Judge "unpersuaded" by "close friends" argument

Even without evidence that Iswaran exercised influence over contracts in favour of Ong and Lum, his culpability cannot be considered low due to his status as a minister, the judge said.

He added that he was "unpersuaded" by Iswaran's defence that the gifts given by Lum were in the context of their close relationship as friends.

"The resulting harm is not mitigated by the fact that he chose to share it with his family and friends," he added.

Hoong also addressed the charge of obstruction of justice, in which Iswaran requested the Singapore Grand Prix to bill him for the Doha trip "to reduce the chances of investigation by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB)".

"The accused had personal interest in avoiding the investigation by CPIB," Hoong said.

"This is a grave culpability-increasing factor," he added.

Sentence reduction

The judge also noted that Iswaran had initially rejected the charges in his letter to then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Hoong said he had "considerable difficulty" accepting that this indicated remorse for his actions.

He acknowledged that while "some credit" can be given for his voluntary disgorgement — he paid back over S$380,000 to the state, and forfeited the items seized during the investigation — the mitigating factor is "low", given that this was not done early in the proceedings.

Iswaran further planned to claim trial to all the charges, and confirmed that he would not be pleading guilty, Hoong said.

He added: "I am not persuaded by the defence’s submission, that the accused planned to plead guilty as soon as possible."

"In my view, the accused, having made the tactical choices that he did at the beginning of the proceedings, should stand by those choices."

Sentence higher than what prosecution and defence asked for

Hoong said he was unable to agree with either the defence and the prosecution on their requested sentences, calling them "manifestly inadequate".

Instead, he imposed an aggregate sentence "in excess of both parties' positions": a total of 12 months' jail.

Three of the individual sentences for each of the five charges were ordered to run consecutively:

• 6 months' jail for obtaining ten Green Room tickets to the 2017 Singapore F1 race, worth S$42,265
• 4 months' jail for making a payment of S$5,700 to the Singapore Grand Prix for the cost of the Doha-Singapore flight previously paid for by Ong, obstructing the course of justice
• 2 months' jail for obtaining 14 whisky and wine bottles worth S$3,255.75 from Lum

The other two sentences were ordered to run concurrently:

• 3 months and 3 weeks' jail for obtaining flights between Doha and Singapore and a hotel stay from Ong worth S$20,848.03
• 3 months' jail for obtaining a Brompton T-Line bicycle worth S$7,907.50 from Lum

Singh requested for Iswaran's sentence to commence on Oct. 7, to allow for a review of the judge's sentencing grounds, and to take instructions from his client.

Iswaran was ordered to surrender himself at 4pm on Oct. 7 at the State Courts.

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Top photo by Andrew Koay