SINGAPORE: It is not uncommon for charges to be amended on their way to the courts because of developments in the case, said Minister-in-charge of the Public Service Chan Chun Sing. 

He was responding in parliament on Monday (Oct 14) to a question posed by Workers’ Party MP Sylvia Lim on whether the initial corruption case against former transport minister S Iswaran was “weak” which led to a reduction of charges. 

The Aljunied MP, who is also a lawyer, asked: “Would the public be justified to conclude that actually, the corruption case against the (former) minister was weak, hence resulting in the reduction of charges away from the PCA (Prevention of Corruption Act)?"

Mr Chan replied that such amendments are "not odd" and "do happen regularly in the courts ... because of developments, representations by the prosecution and the defender”.

Iswaran was in January handed 27 charges, among them two charges of corruption. 

During his trial in September, the two corruption charges were amended to lesser charges under Section 165 of the Penal Code, which forbids all public servants from obtaining any valuable thing from someone involved with them in an official capacity, and one charge of obstruction of justice, to which he pleaded guilty to among other charges. 

Ms Lim then noted that after Iswaran was sentenced to 12 months in prison on Oct 3, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had said that Singapore needs stay clean of corruption. 

She asked whether this was because Mr Wong thought Iswaran had acted corruptly, regardless of the charges that were made against him. 

Mr Chan said that Section 165, which applies to public officers, "is a corruption charge".

Ms Lim then asked for more clarity, sayi...