By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-10-03 02:49:05 | Updated at 2024-10-04 19:27:42
1 day ago
Singapore’s former transport minister S Iswaran on Thursday was sentenced by a High Court judge to 12 months’ imprisonment for four counts of accepting gifts from someone involved with him as a public servant and one charge of obstructing justice.
The case has drawn significant attention in the city state, where ministers are well paid, and the island republic consistently ranks high on global anti-corruption indices.
Iswaran, who entered politics in 1997 and joined Lee Hsien Loong’s cabinet in 2006, had pleaded guilty despite initially maintaining his innocence when legal proceedings began in January.
The 62-year-old had initially been charged with two counts of corruption and was set to go on trial but in an unexpected twist on September 24, he pleaded guilty after the prosecution amended the charges to the lesser ones of obtaining gifts as a public servant for no consideration. These charges do not require the prosecution to prove that Iswaran received the gifts in exchange for advancing the giver’s business interests.
He is the first person in Singapore to be prosecuted for this offence since the city state’s independence in 1965.
Iswaran was convicted of accepting gifts from businessman Ong Beng Seng, whom he worked with on the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix and Lum Kok Seng, a director of a construction company involved in works to a railway station while he was transport minister.
