Singapore’s former Minister for Transport and Minister-in-charge for Trade Relations S. Iswaran leaves the Supreme Court in Singapore on October 3, 2024. Agence France-Presse
SINGAPORE — A Singapore court on Thursday sentenced former transport minister S. Iswaran to 12 months in prison, local media reported, in the financial hub’s first case involving a political office holder in more than four decades.
After Iswaran was convicted last week of obstruction of justice and accepting illegal gifts, prosecutors had sought a six-to-seven-month sentence, The Straits Times reported.
But the defense team for the former minister, who is known for helping to bring Formula One to the wealthy city-state, had argued for a maximum sentence of eight weeks.
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Earlier this year, Iswaran was hit with 35 charges mostly related to graft in a nation often cited as one of the world’s least corrupt.
But prosecutors moved forward with five lesser charges only, including some related to a billionaire property tycoon.
Iswaran quit in January after being formally notified of the charges, which include accepting gifts worth more than $300,000.
In a resignation letter at the time, he said he would clear his name in court.
READ: Singapore ex-Transport minister faces 8 new charges in graft case
Iswaran has paid back around $295,000 in financial gain to the government, and gifts including a Brompton bicycle were also seized from him, the attorney general’s office said.
His trial has been deemed by observers to be one of the most politically significant in the city-state’s history.
Singapore’s last senior politician convicted for graft dates to 1975, when Wee Toon Boon, then minister of state for environment, was found guilty of accepting bribes worth more than $600,000 according to local media.