Ex-Singapore minister Subramaniam Iswaran receives 1-year prison sentence for graft

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- A former Singapore government minister was sentenced to a year in prison Thursday on corruption charges after pleading guilty to accepting gifts worth more than $300,000 including Formula 1 race and soccer match tickets, private jet travel and hotel accommodation.

The city state's High Court handed down the jail term to 62-year-old former transport minister Subramaniam Iswaran for four counts of obtaining valuable items from two local businessmen and a single count of obstructing justice by accepting the gifts ranging from big overseas ticket sports and leisure items to a folding "Brompton" bicycle and alcohol.

Another 30 charges under the same section of the penal code were taken into consideration at Thursday's sentencing hearing after Iswaran was convicted on September 24 .

Iswaran was arrested in July 2023 following an investigation by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau into his dealings between 2017 and 2022 and repayment in May 2023 of a $4,400 business class ticket from Doha to Singapore paid for by one of the businessmen that the prosecution alleged was aimed at throwing the CPIB off the scent.

Justice Vincent Hoong overrode the 7-month sentence sought by prosecutors saying that Iswaran had abused his power and damaged public faith in the government, referring to the battering the reputation of the ruling People's Action Party has taken from the scandal.

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said he was "saddened and disappointed" at the way the career of the 25-year veteran of parliament and Communications Minister and Trade and Industry minister had ended.

But he warned that Singapore's system of government and politics must be above reproach and without graft of any kind.

"As painful as it is to act against a colleague and friend, it is our duty to do so when necessary. Our system of government and politics must always stay clean and free from corruption," said Wong, adding that public officials in whom the public had placed their trust had to hold to the highest standards of integrity.

"This is absolutely vital and non-negotiable," Wong said.

Cabinet ministers are paid more than $400,000 a year, compared with the median annual salary of $48,000, in part to lessen temptation in what is the wealth capital of southeast Asia and possibly the entire region.

Iswaran, Singapore's first politician to face a criminal prosecution in almost a half-century, is set to surrender Sunday to begin his sentence at Singapore's tough Changi Prison where death row inmates are held and prisoners sleep on straw mattresses on the cell floor.

Ruled for almost six decades by the party of Singapore's founding father the late Lee Kuan Yew , the city-state is renowned for its orderliness, low crime and clean civil service and government in a region swamped in corruption, consistently ranking in the top least corrupt states globally.