Former Workers’ Party (WP) cadre Loh Pei Ying was grilled by the defence about a redacted text message on Thursday (17 October) during the trial of Pritam Singh.
Loh had initially claimed in a document submitted to the Committee of Privileges (COP) that she redacted a text message from an MP as it was unrelated to the hearings.
However, in her cross-examination yesterday in Singh’s trial, she testified the real reason for redacting the message was it would not ‘look good’ on fellow WP cadre Yudhishthra Nathan.
Singh is contesting two charges of lying under oath to the COP while testifying in an investigation into Raeesah Khan who had included an untrue anecdote about a sexual assault case in Parliament.
The redacted message sent by Nathan had suggested continuing the lie Khan told in Parliament.
The message was revealed in court yesterday and read: “In the first place, I think we should just not give too many details. At most apologise for not having the facts about her age accurate.”
When pressed by Singh’s lawyer Andre Jumabhoy on why she had blacked out the message, Loh said: “I wasn’t trying to preserve the integrity, but I was worried that these documents would become public and I didn’t want him to be attacked for it.”
Loh also testified that the redaction process was verified by a member of the COP, Rahayu Mahzam.
In her testimony, she said that when it came to submitting evidence to the COP, she believed the message – and the fact that Nathan expressed regret over it – was not necessary to include.
“That would make him appear poorly because he did eventually change his mind, and it didn’t materialise. This wasn’t something that was acted on. And during police investigations, we came clean and told the police about this,” she said.
Singh’s lawyer Jumabhoy will continue the cross-examination of Loh today (18 October) on what is the fifth day of this trial.
