Pritam Singh's appeal verdict to be delivered on Dec. 4, 2025

The verdict for Workers' Party (WP) Secretary-General Pritam Singh's appeal against his conviction for lying to the Committee of Privileges (COP) is set to be delivered on Dec. 4.

According to a public hearing schedule, it has been scheduled to take place at 9:45am on Dec. 4, at the Supreme Court.

The verdict date has also been confirmed with Justice Steven Chong and Singh's defence team, CNA reported.

This comes exactly one month after Singh's appeal hearing on Nov. 4.

Defence's case

Singh initially indicated he would be appealing against the sentence of S$7,000 each for two charges under the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act.

However, at the appeal hearing, Singh's lawyer Andre Jumabhoy indicated that they would be appealing the conviction itself.

Jumabhoy argued that the previous district judge who convicted Singh "ignored crucial pieces of evidence" and noted two critical statements.

The first being Singh's alleged comment about taking former WP Member of Parliament Raeesah Khan's untruth "to the grave", which he denied saying and saying, "I will not judge you" to her.

The prosecution interpreted that statement to mean Singh would not judge Raeesah for continuing her lie, but the defence argued that Singh meant he would not judge her if she took ownership of her lie.

Prosecution and judge's response

After a break, the prosecution pointed out that Singh had not addressed the two key points that underlie his case.

The prosecution said they have proven their case beyond a reasonable doubt regarding the two questions on the statement "take it to the grave" and "I will not judge you".

The prosecution also provided instances where the district judge found Singh's testimony "incoherent (and) inconsistent".

However, Chong said he does not find the general submission attacking Singh's credibility as "useful" and "appealing". He then told the prosecution to reframe their submission instead of "saying he lied on eight occasions, so everything he said is a lie".

The prosecution then brought up Singh's failure to follow up with Raeesah even once after the anecdote, arguing that he was not too busy to address the issue, as he had time to give a private tour of his office in Parliament.

"This radio silence speaks volumes," said Deputy Attorney General Goh Yihan.

Chong went on to question the prosecution regarding Singh's second charge, specifically the phrasing "wanted to convey".

He noted that the phrasing is based on what Singh told the COP, not what he told Raeesah.

He went on to state that "no one is responsible for that lie except for [Raeesah]".

Ultimately, the prosecution called for the dismissal of Singh's appeal in its entirety.

Background

Singh went on trial for two charges relating to what he told the COP, which was set up to look into Raeesah and her untruth in parliament.

Here's a timeline of what happened from Aug. 3, 2021, to Singh's 13-day trial in 2024:

On Feb. 17, 2025, the judge convicted Singh on both charges under the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act.

The first is for claiming that he wanted Raeesah to clarify her lie in parliament at some point.

The second is for telling the Committee of Privileges that he had advised Raeesah to come clean in parliament.

The judge found Singh guilty of falsely testifying to the COP that when he spoke to Raeesah on Oct. 3, 2021, he wanted her to admit to having lied to parliament on Aug. 3, 2021, about having accompanied a rape victim to a police station, if this issue were to come up in parliament on Oct 4, 2021.

Singh was given the maximum fine of S$7,000 for each charge.

Top image from Azrizal Abu Che/Mothership