Pritam Singh's appeal against conviction for lying to COP on role in Raeesah Khan’s case dismissed

Workers' Party (WP) Secretary-General Pritam Singh's appeal against his conviction for lying to the Committee of Privileges (COP) was dismissed on Dec. 4.

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

Court began at 9:45am with Justice Steven Chong thanking both parties for their “helpful” submissions.

He said the appeal was conducted by both "very fairly" and "in the best traditions of the Bar".

Chong turned to two statements central to the case.

The first statement is when Singh allegedly asked for Raeesah to “take it to the grave”, which Chong said was a “grave statement”. Singh had denied saying this.

The second statement, which he called the "judgement statement" is when Singh told Raeesah “I would not judge you”. The interpretation of this statement is in dispute.

Chong said that the court’s task was to examine all the evidence, including Raeesah's testimony, WhatsApp messages and other evidence of Singh's conduct at the material times.

He said that he found the trial judge's decision to convict Singh on both charges supported by the evidence.

Singh has seven days to pay the fine. He was seen paying his fines on the day itself.

Defence's case

During the appeal hearing, 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.

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 Amber Tay/Mothership