Singapore's Indian-origin ex min fails to get witness statements

Singapore's Indian-origin former transport minister S Iswaran on Tuesday failed to secure the statements of prosecution witnesses for a third time as his trial for alleged corruption starts next week.

The 62-year-old faces a total of 35 charges, two of which are for corruption involving about SGD 166,000. Another 32 counts are for obtaining items worth more than SGD 237,000 as a public servant, while one is for obstructing the course of justice.

Iswaran made two previous bids to obtain all the prosecution witness statements before his case goes to trial.

These attempts were rejected by an assistant registrar at a criminal case disclosure conference and a High Court judge.

Iswaran's charges relate to his dealings with hotel and property tycoon Ong Beng Seng, and Singapore Exchange-listed Lum Chang Holdings' managing director David Lum.

The defence lawyers, led by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, based their arguments on their interpretation of Section 214(1)(d) of the Criminal Proced