Pritam's trial Day 2: Raeesah questioned, defence seeks to impeach her

The second day of Workers' Party (WP) secretary-general Pritam Singh’s trial ended with the defence wanting to impeach Raeesah Khan as a witness.

Throughout the eight hours in court on Oct. 15, 2024, Raeesah faced a series of questions from both the prosecution and Singh's lawyer, Andre Jumabhoy.

One particular line of questioning led to Jumabhoy calling to impeach Raeesah for inconsistencies in her testimony.

They had been discussing an email sent by Singh to WP Members of Parliament (MPs) on Oct. 1, 2021, in which Singh reiterated the importance of substantiating one's parliamentary speech.

Raeesah's testimony in court

Raeesah said that the email felt like a "dig" at her.

"It’s telling you, isn’t it, about the consequences of what would happen in terms of failing to back up your anecdote," Jumabhoy said.

Raeesah said she understood that.

Did Raeesah, Jumabhoy continued, then not see this email as a suggestion that she should come clean?

"No," she responded.

She said there was a difference between sharing a consequence and a directive:

"How is it a directive? It doesn’t say, 'Raeesah, if the issue comes up in the next parliament, you need to tell the truth.'"

Defence lays out inconsistencies

Jumabhoy said if Raeesah had told police she was frightened after reading the email, then she should have known it for what it meant — a caution not to continue with the lie.

Raeesah previously mentioned to police that she had felt "fear" when she saw the email, and was scared the untruth would be brought up again in the parliament session on Oct. 4, 2021.

When asked if she had told the police about feeling like it was a “dig”, she said she could not remember.

Jumabhoy called for Raeesah to be brought out of the courtroom, and she stepped out.

He then pointed out that her initial account to the police was "materially different" from what she had just told the court, which was that she did not think the email was implying she tell the truth, but just a "dig".

Prosecution rejects "discrepancies"

This brought Deputy Attorney-General Ang Cheng Hock to his feet.

"I’m not sure why this is material at all," he countered.

"The simple point is that this email speaks for itself; all of us can read it... All this evidence of whether it was a dig and whether she felt fear, all this is not the main point."

Ang said he could only accept there was a "discrepancy" if Jumabhoy had straight up asked Raeesah if she had felt fear when reading the email, and she said no. 

Jumabhoy also brought up Raeesah's previous recollection of Singh's meeting with her on Oct. 3 where he had told her he would not judge her.

On the first day of the trial, Raeesah recounted what Singh told her then, saying it was:

"Something along the lines of I don’t think the issue will come up but if it does come up, he won’t judge me for continuing the narrative.”

However, Jumabhoy pointed out, Raeesah had said in her statement to the police that Singh said: "knowing them, they might bring it up again".

A lengthy back-and-forth between Ang and Jumabhoy ensued, until the judge stepped in.

The judge decided that the email might be relevant "to a certain extent", as it might show how Singh did indeed foresee Raeesah's lie being revisited in parliament, even though Raeesah claimed he thought otherwise.

The judge will make a decision on Oct. 16 as to whether there are sufficient grounds to allow Raeesah to be impeached as a witness.

What took place before

Earlier in the day, Raeesah was first questioned by the prosecution.

She said that during her meeting with the WP's Central Executive Committee (CEC), she had been taken back by the panel's decision to review her conduct as an MP, and hurt by the sense of distance they portrayed.

Raeesah later faced the defence, who questioned her about her understanding of the word "substantiate" and her "snowball" of lies.

What happens next?

When asked if he had anything else to say as he left the court building, Singh told the media: "No, no, no, I think we should wait till the trial is over."

Raeesah is expected to continue testifying on Oct. 16.

Other witnesses the prosecution plans to call are Raeesah's former aides Loh Pei Ying and Yudhishthra Nathan, former WP chief Low Thia Khiang, and the Singapore Police Force's head of Special Investigation Section Roy Lim, the lead investigator who took statements from witnesses.

Top images via Mothership