'I wholly & unreservedly apologise to the court': Pritam Singh on 'court of public opinion' comment in CNA interview

Leader of the Opposition and Workers Party Secretary-General Pritam Singh apologised on Dec. 13 for comments made during a Nov. 5 episode of CNA's "The Assembly".

In response to a question about his conviction in the Raeesah Khan case, he said: "The court of public opinion can be a bigger court than any court in the world."

Wholly and unreservedly

In a social media post on Dec. 12, Pritam apologised “wholly and unreservedly” to the court for comments that could have been “construed to be in contempt of court, including to impugn the integrity, propriety or impartiality of the court.”

He also promised to avoid making comments to the “same or similar effect in future”.

The background

Pritam had spoken on an episode of CNA’s “The Assembly”, which features an audience of neurodivergent individuals interviewing notable personalities, which aired on Nov. 5.

During the interview, he was asked about the Raeesah Khan case, in which he had been convicted for lying to the Committee of Privileges (COP).

He was convicted on Feb. 17, 2025, for both of the charges he was in court for, firstly for claiming that he wanted Raeesah to clarify her lie in parliament at some point, and secondly for telling the Committee of Privileges that he had advised Raeesah to come clean in parliament.

Pritam was found 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.

At the time of the interview, Singh was awaiting the outcome of an appeal of the verdict.

The comment

When asked about the case and being called a “liar”, Singh replied that it was not something he lost sleep over.

Pointing to his party’s performance in 2025’s general election, which took place in May 2025, after his conviction, where the WP became the sole opposition party in Parliament, he said, "The court of public opinion can be a bigger court than any court in the world.”

Criticised by Edwin Tong

This comment was criticised by Minister for Law Edwin Tong, who said that "This is an outrageous statement, plainly wrong and also completely unacceptable."

Tong also said that "no one should dismiss or denigrate the court's judgment or suggest that public opinion can somehow trump a court's decision".

Doing so is a "very dangerous idea", he added, saying the rule of law is a cornerstone of Singapore's system.

Response to Tong

In a response to Tong on the same day, Singh pointed out that the judgment was released in February 2025, while the People’s Action Party (PAP) called for elections two months later, in April 2025.

Despite the possible impact of the court verdict on voters, Singh said the WP still performed respectably in the general election.

"This was the important context that came before the remarks I made about the court of public opinion on the CNA program," he said.

"My remarks were not directed at the judicial system, judges or their independence, nor did it denigrate any of these institutions."

Since the comment, Singh’s appeal against his conviction was dismissed on Dec. 4.

He told the press afterwards that he was "disappointed with the verdict”, but that “I respect and accept the judgment fully and without reservation."

He said that he had “certainly took too long to respond to Raeesah’s lie in Parliament. I take responsibility for that."

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