SINGAPORE: The highly anticipated trial of former transport minister S Iswaran is set to open on Tuesday morning (Sep 24), eight months after he was charged with corruption linked to Formula 1 bigwig Ong Beng Seng.

The criminal trial is one-of-a-kind in recent history. The last time a minister faced a corruption probe was about 40 years ago.

Then-minister for national development Teh Cheang Wan died by suicide before he could be charged with corruption in 1986. Before him, then-minister of state for environment Wee Toon Boon was sentenced to jail for corruption in 1975.

Iswaran's case also involves Section 165 of the Penal Code, a rare charge forbidding all public servants from obtaining any valuable thing from someone involved with them in an official capacity.

How the court interprets this section may impact how public servants ought to conduct their affairs and transact with other people, the High Court previously stated.

Underscoring the high-profile nature of this trial are the prosecutors assigned to the case.

Iswaran hired heavyweight Senior Counsel Davinder Singh from the get-go. On the prosecution’s side, Chief Prosecutor Tan Kiat Pheng initially led the charge with a team of seasoned prosecutors under him in the early charging stages.

Later, Deputy Attorney-General and Senior Counsel Tai Wei Shyong joined the team at its helm when the case went to the High Court for various applications.

Related:Iswaran corruption case: Who are the lawyers leading the prosecution and defence? THE CHARGES

The total amount involved across Iswaran's 35 charges is about S$403,300, for things like tickets to football matches, musicals and F1 events, flight tickets and hotel stays, bottles of whisky and golf clubs.

Of this, the two corruption charges, which allegedly involve only Mr Ong, amount to about S$166,280.

The 32 charges under Section 165, which include valuables allegedly obtained from both Mr Ong and Mr Lum Kok Seng, the managing director of Singapore-listed Lum Chang Holdings, involve S$237,000.

The bulk of this is for allegedly obtaining S$218,000 of valuables in his capacity as a minister who also dealt with Mr Ong and his company. Iswaran was the chairman of Singapore's F1 Steering Committee.

The remaining S$19,000 comprises valuables Iswaran allegedly obtained from Mr Lum between November 2021 and November 2022.

The last charge is for obstructing justice, by repaying the cost of a business flight ticket in May 2023 that was originally bought at Mr Ong's expense.

Iswaran obtained permission to have a joint trial for all 35 charges, but it is yet to be seen which groups of charges will be proceeded with first at trialluckyhub777, or whether the prosecution will tackle each charge in turn.

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