Singapore's former minister S. Iswaran was sentenced to prison in a rare corruption case over a squeaky clean country

Singapore
Reuters
—

A Singapore court on Thursday sentenced a former minister to 12 months in prison for obstructing justice and accepting gifts worth more than $300,000. This was the first detention of a former cabinet member in a city-state known for clean governance.

S. Iswaran, who was a Cabinet member for 13 years and held the portfolios of Commerce, Communications and Transport, had pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawfully accepting gifts and one count of obstruction of justice.

The court said Iswaran, 62, would be allowed to remain on bail for the next few days and begin his sentence on Monday.

The case has shocked Singapore, which prides itself on its well-paid and efficient bureaucracy and strong and squeaky-clean governance. It was among the five least corrupt countries in the world last year, according to Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index.

The last corruption case involving a Singaporean minister was in 1986, when the national development minister was investigated for alleged bribery but died before charges were brought to court.

The investigation caused a stir in the Asian financial hub and focused on allegations that Iswaran, as transport minister, accepted lavish gifts from businessmen, including tickets to English Premier League football matches, the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix, musicals in London and a Ride on an airplane private jet.

The total value of these items was more than 400,000 Singapore dollars (US$309,000), prosecutors said. Iswaran resigned as transport minister after less than three years in the job when he was first charged in January.

Iswaran had initially said he was innocent and would fight to clear his name, but then pleaded guilty to the five charges presented to the court, two of which initially related to corruption but were then changed to a charge of accepting gifts.

The public prosecutor's office had initially charged him with 35 crimes, but only went forward with five.