SINGAPORE: Former Workers' Party (WP) member Raeesah Khan said she had felt "very defeated and betrayed" after party leaders grilled her on her conduct as a Member of Parliament (MP) during disciplinary panel sessions.
Testifying on the second day of WP secretary-general Pritam Singh's trial on Tuesday (Oct 15), Ms Khan said that the panel made her feel like the people she trusted the most had "turned around" and used the disciplinary panel to criticise her, and to "almost pretend" that they had not been guiding her on the false anecdote she gave in parliament.
The disciplinary panel's proceedings led Ms Khan, a former Sengkang MP, to think that they would ask her to resign, she testified.
The prosecution was resuming its examination-in-chief of Ms Khan, which began on Monday. Deputy Public Prosecutor Sivakumar Ramasamy had taken Ms Khan through a timeline of events in chronological order, starting from the day she recounted the false anecdote in parliament on Aug 3, 2021.
Ms Khan had lied about accompanying a rape victim to a police station, where a police officer allegedly made comments about the woman's attire and consumption of alcohol.
She repeated the lie when asked to clarify its details during a subsequent sitting on Oct 4, 2021.
Her account triggered a series of discussions, questions and clarifications, finally resulting in Ms Khan coming clean, and the matter being referred to a Committee of Privileges (COP) inquiry.
Singh, 48, was also called before the COP. He is accused of making two lies before the COP on Dec 10 and Dec 1563jili, 2021:
At the conclusion of his meeting with Ms Khan and WP members Ms Sylvia Lim and Mr Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap on Aug 8, 2021, Singh wanted Ms Khan to clarify at some point in parliament that what she had said about accompanying a rape victim to a police station was untrue; and When Singh spoke to Ms Khan on Oct 3, 2021, he wanted to convey to Ms Khan that if the issue came up in parliament the next day, she had to clarify that her story about accompanying the rape victim was a lie
Pritam Singh arrives at the State Courts on Oct 15, 2024. (Photo: CNA/Syamil Sapari)