Soh’s committal hearing in S’pore could be heard in open court
SINGAPORE: Malaysian businessman John Soh Chee Wen’s committal hearing related to allegations he masterminded the collapse of Singapore’s penny stocks more than four years ago could be heard in open court.
Soh faces 181 charges before the Singapore High Court of violations of the Securities and Futures Act, and later was slapped with an additional seven accusations of witness tampering.
Unlike in Malaysian courts where an accused person’s trial begins if they contest their charges, Singaporean courts conduct a committal hearing to determine if there are sufficient grounds to commit to a full trial.
Committal hearings are usually a closed proceeding, meaning the happenings in court like witnesses’ testimonies and applications cannot be reported as per Section 190 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The only information the press are allowed to report are the identity of the court, names of the presiding magistrate, accused persons, their lawyers and the prosecutors, plus any court decisions including whether to go to trial, adjournments or offering of bail.
However, a sub-clause Section 190(2) allows the accused persons to apply to remove the block against reporting.
Speaking to reporters outside court, Soh’s lawyer N. Sreenivasan declined to comment if his client made such an application, saying it was premature to comment with the block still in place.
During the hearing yesterday, Soh was brought to the courtroom around 9.15am, dressed in a purple jumpsuit embroidered with the word prisoner.
He has been in remand after the charges were filed against him in November 2016, failing twice to obtain bail due to the court’s ruling that he was a flight risk.
Though much thinner than in earlier photos, he appeared calm, smiling and waving to several people in the public gallery during the break and diligently taking notes during his lawyer’s cross examination.
The three-day trial would see the cross examination of 13 of the 67 prosecution’s witnesses by the defence lawyers.
The high-profile case was followed by a full public gallery, with significant media scrutiny.
Security was also heavy, with half-dozen policemen seen in the courtroom and at the accused’s dock.
Later joining Soh in the dock were former IPCO International chief executive officer (CEO) Quah Su Ling and Goh Hin Calm, who are alleged to have manipulated three penny stocks – LionGold Corp, Blumont Group, and Asiasons Capital (since then renamed Attilan) – back in 2013.
Quah and Goh are out on bail of S$4mil (RM11.8mil) and S$750,000 (RM2.2mil) respectively.
The meteoric surge in prices of these three stocks came to a spectacular halt in October that year, then crashed, vapourising S$8bil (RM23.6bil) worth in market value.
The hearing before assistant registrar James Elisha Lee continues today.