SINGAPORE — When he entered a start-up competition in 2013, Yang Kaiheng’s entry form stated that he started and ran The Real Singapore (TRS) website with his then-girlfriend Ai Takagi.

Prosecutors produced this evidence on Tuesday (April 5), as they sought to blow the lid off Yang’s denial of his involvement with the now-defunct sociopolitical site, which had published seditious articles for which he has been implicated.

The 27-year-old faces seven sedition charges for posts published on TRS aiming to “maliciously exploit racial and xenophobic faultlines”, targeting foreigners from the Philippines, India and China. Takagi, whom Yang has married, has pleaded guilty to identical charges and been sentenced to 10 months’ jail.

Prosecutors also found one of Yang’s team-mates in that start-up competition over the weekend and put him on the stand on Tuesday as their ninth and final witness, before they closed their case.

Mr K Sudesh Durai, 26, testified that he got acquainted with Yang in junior college and roped the latter in for his idea for an online start-up called Acreet. The site was intended to conduct giveaways of objects that users wanted, based on votes.

Mr Sudesh, a third-year Nanyang Technological University student, said he brought in Yang because he felt Yang was “experienced in online ventures”. Yang had also said over Facebook that he had started “TheRealSingapore.com”, said Mr Sudesh.

Together with Takagi and another man, they entered Acreet into a start-up competition.

Each member had to fill out a form and submit an introductory video clip as part of their application.

Yang’s video clip was screened in court on Tuesday, in which he said he had two business ventures, including an “online news site” that was “the most successful so far” and “one of the top 100 sites, traffic-wise in Singapore”.

On his form, Yang also wrote: “I have also, together with Ai Takagi, started and continued to run an online news media site at www.therealsingapore.com from which advertising revenue is gained.”

Text messages exchanged between Mr Sudesh and Yang between January and November 2012 also showed that Yang regularly spoke about running the website, such as how “500,000 Singaporeans (were) reading it every day” and it was “earning about S$4,000 to S$5,000 a month”. Yang also sought Mr Sudesh’s help in developing an app for TRS.

In a WhatsApp message on March 10, 2013, Yang sought Mr Sudesh’s suggestions for merchandise he could sell on TRS: “If u can think of something simple that 500,000 people can buy and go viral, then we can earn our first pot of gold from my website.”

Mr Sudesh said he fell out with Yang in April 2013 over how Acreet’s website would be developed.

The defence’s cross-examination of Mr Sudesh on Tuesday afternoon was interjected several times by Deputy Public Prosecutor G Kannan, who objected to Yang texting on his mobile phone in the dock.

Yang told the court that he was communicating with his pregnant wife who was in hospital as she was bleeding. He challenged the prosecution to examine his text records.

Takagi attended Tuesday’s hearing and was last seen walking out of the State Courts building with Yang at around 3pm.

Yang is expected to take the stand when he launches his defence on Wednesday afternoon. If found guilty, Yang could be fined up to S$5,000 or jailed for up to three years on each charge.