SINGAPORE, Sept 24 (Askume) – The highly anticipated corruption trial of Singapore’s former transport minister is set to begin on Tuesday, a rare corruption case involving a government official in the Asian financial hub that prides itself on clean governance.
S Iswaran faces 35 charges in a case that stretches to Singapore , a wealthy city-state where allegations of corruption and political scandals are virtually unheard of. Iswaran, 62, denies the charges .
He was arrested last July and accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from real estate tycoon Wang Mingsheng to promote Wang Mingsheng’s business interests. Ong has not been charged with any crime.
The last corruption case involving a Singaporean minister was in 1986, when the Minister for National Development was investigated for allegedly accepting bribes. The minister died before the charges could be brought to court.
Iswaran joined the Cabinet in 2006 and was the first Singaporean minister to be prosecuted.
If found guilty of corruption, Iswaran faces a fine of up to S$100,000 and up to seven years in jail.
According to the charge sheet, Ishwaran’s alleged benefits included tickets to Premier League football matches, concerts, flights on Wang’s private jet and tickets to the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix.
Iswaran is an advisor to the Grand Prix steering committee, while Ong holds the rights to the competition.
The first phase of the trial will continue until Friday. Iswaran is defended by Davinder Singh, a star litigator whose clients include former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, the late founder of modern Singapore.
The prosecution team is led by Deputy Attorney General Tai Weixiong.
Last year, Singapore was ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, behind only Denmark, Finland, New Zealand and Norway, according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
(USD 1 = SGD 1.2908)
