SINGAPORE — Workers’ Party (WP) secretary-general Pritam Singh showed up at State Courts on Tuesday (March 19), for a case believed to be related to his perjury investigation.

The courts' case management system shows that there is a mention of his perjury case scheduled for Tuesday morning.

Mr Singh, who is also the Leader of the Opposition, showed up at about 10.45am by himself.

In response to a reporter’s question on why he was in court, Mr Singh said with a smile: “Why do you normally come to the State Courts?” 

The opposition party leader and Member of Parliament (MP) for Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) has been investigated by the authorities for more than two years, after Parliament voted in February 2022 to refer the conduct of Mr Singh and WP vice-chair Faisal Manap to the Public Prosecutor, or the Attorney-General, for further probe.

Both Mr Singh and Mr Faisal were among the witnesses who had testified under oath before the Committee of Privileges, which was convened in 2021 to investigate former WP MP Raeesah Khan over lies she told the House in 2021.

The committee was chaired by then Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin and was composed of seven other members, including WP MP Dennis Tan.

During a parliamentary sitting, Ms Khan had claimed that she accompanied a sexual assault victim to a police station where the victim was treated insensitively, but this was later found to be untrue. She has since resigned from the party, vacated her MP seat in Sengkang GRC, and had been fined S$35,000 for her lies and abusing her parliamentary privilege.

Following the hearings, the committee also found that Mr Singh, Mr Faisal and WP chairman Sylvia Lim were untruthful in their evidence while under oath.

It also found that Mr Faisal had refused to answer the committee’s questions, which the committee said may amount to contempt of Parliament.

After the hearings concluded in February 2022, Parliament voted for Mr Singh and Mr Faisal to be referred to the Attorney-General, accepting the committee's 1,180-page report, which stated that the duo might have lied under oath during its investigations, among other things.

The committee did not recommend any action towards Ms Lim because she had assisted the committee voluntarily.

The Attorney-General later referred the conduct of Mr Singh and Mr Faisal to the police in April 2022. 

Last February, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam gave an update in Parliament that the police were still investigating the case.

Mr Singh previously wrote in a Facebook post that there were a "number of unknowns" with regards to how the case would pan out, including the time taken for the legal process, as well as the prospect of both Mr Faisal and him losing their parliamentary seats if either are fined S$2,000 or more.

Mr Singh was referring to Singapore's Constitution, which previously stated that MPs who are convicted and fined for an offence may lose their seats if the fine amount is at least S$2,000.

The disqualification threshold was raised to at least S$10,000, following amendments to the Constitution passed unanimously by Parliament in May 2022. MPs may also be disqualified if they are sentenced to a jail term of one year or more.