SINGAPORE — The trial for former transport minister S Iswaran will begin from Sept 10 instead of this week.

In response to media queries, the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) said that the earlier set of trial dates was changed to run from Sept 10 to 13 on the defence counsel’s request. It was initially set to start on Aug 13. 

Iswaran's lawyers, led by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, told TODAY that the change in trial dates is because he intends to appeal a judge's decision that the prosecution will not need to hand over conditioned statements of all its 56 witnesses.

The decision was made last month by High Court Judge Vincent Hoong.

Conditioned statements are written evidence in any criminal proceeding that holds the same effect as oral evidence, if they satisfy certain conditions under the Criminal Procedure Code, including being signed by the person who made it.

"If permission (to appeal) is granted, the Court of Appeal will decide whether the prosecution has or does not have to produce witness statements before the trial," the defence counsel said.

The defence team added that with the application of the appeal, it is "unlikely" the trial could start on Aug 13.

It also said that AGC did not disagree with the change in trial dates.

Iswaran faces 35 charges mostly related to alleged bribery and corruption involving property tycoon Ong Beng Seng and construction company boss Lum Kok Seng.

Among other things, he is alleged to have obtained valuable items worth about S$218,000 from Mr Ong and S$18,957 worth of such items from Mr Lum.

His appeal to have all his corruption charges to be heard in one trial, instead of two as proposed by the prosecution, was approved earlier in May.

Iswaran will be back in court on Aug 16 for chambers hearing, public records showed. This hearing is not open to the public.

CLARIFICATION: This report has been updated with information from S Iswaran's lawyers on the reason behind the change in trial dates, which was received after publication time.