Former Singapore minister gets 12-month stretch for graft

S. Iswaran, known for helping bring Formula One to the financial hub, was hit this year with 35 charges.

S. Iswaran leaves the Supreme Court in Singapore on Thursday. Picture: AFP

A Singaporean former minister was sentenced on Thursday to 12 months in prison for obstruction of justice and accepting illegal gifts in the city-state’s first political graft trial for half a century.

Ex-transport minister S. Iswaran, known for helping bring Formula One to the financial hub, was hit this year with 35 charges mostly related to graft in a nation often cited as one of the world’s least corrupt.

Iswaran’s sentence was more severe than the six to seven months requested by the prosecution, which High Court judge Vincent Hoong said would have been “manifestly inadequate” given the impact of the case on public trust.

“Trust and confidence in public institutions are the bedrock of effective governance, which can all too easily be undermined by the appearance that an individual public servant has fallen below the standards of integrity and accountability,” Judge Hoong said when he delivered the sentence.

Iswaran, 62, was convicted last week of obstruction of justice and accepting illegal gifts after prosecutors moved forward with five lesser charges only, including some related to a billionaire property tycoon.

His defence team asked for Iswaran’s jail term to commence on October 7, local media reported.

Iswaran quit in January after being formally notified of the charges, which include accepting gifts worth more than $US300,000 ($437,000). Iswaran has paid back $US295,000 in financial gain to the government and gifts including a Brompton bicycle were also seized from him, the attorney-general’s office said.

The charges include obstruction of justice relating to an attempt to block Singaporean authorities from investigating a business-class flight at the expense of Malaysian hotel tycoon Ong Beng Seng, one of Singapore’s richest residents.

The other four charges relate to his receipt of gifts from Ong, the managing director of Hotel Properties, and Lum Kok Seng, a top director at a construction company, including bottles of whiskey and golf clubs.

Neither businessman has faced punishment.

Local media reported that the attorney-general’s office said it would “take a decision soon” on Ong. But it did not mention Lum.

AFP