news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

on the afternoon of october 7, singapore’s former transport minister yi huaren arrived at the country’s national court at 3:32 pm, preparing to serve his sentence in prison. previously, he was sentenced to one year in prison for corruption cases.

on october 3, 2024 local time, singapore, singapore’s former transport minister yi huaren arrived at the singapore supreme court to accept the verdict. visual china map

according to xinhua news agency, a local court in singapore announced on the 3rd that yi huaren was sentenced to one year in prison for corruption cases. yi huaren did not appeal, so he reported to the court on october 7 to serve his sentence. in january this year, yi huaren officially resigned as minister of transportation after being accused of bribery and other crimes. on september 24, yi huaren admitted to relevant illegal charges. among the 35 charges he faced, 34 accused him of accepting benefits or gifts from others while holding public office, and another accused him of obstructing justice. the total amount involved about 400,000 singapore dollars (approximately rmb 2.168 million).

according to the "lianhe zaobao" report, yi huaren earlier issued a statement on the social platform facebook saying that he would not appeal against the sentence, saying that he would take full responsibility for his actions and apologize to all singaporeans.

according to new media reports, yi huaren is the first public official since singapore's independence to be convicted of soliciting and accepting valuables from people with official relations. high court judge ang seng-li ultimately sentenced him to one year in prison, nearly double the six to seven months requested by the prosecution. if yi huaren behaves well in prison and his sentence can be shortened by one-third, he may be released from prison early next year in early june.

as reported earlier, in july 2023, the singapore corruption investigation bureau confirmed that yi huaren was arrested. the corrupt practices investigation bureau revealed that month that iswaran was "assisting in the investigation." subsequently, the prime minister's office of singapore stated that then-prime minister lee hsien loong had asked iswaran to suspend his duties until the corrupt practices investigation bureau completed its investigation.

yi huaren entered politics in 1997 and has served in various government departments. he has worked in the ministry of trade and industry for the longest time. he became the minister of trade and industry in charge of domestic economic affairs in 2015, took charge of the ministry of communications and information in 2018, and was transferred to the minister of transport in 2021. according to the "lianhe zaobao" report, during his tenure at the ministry of trade and industry, yi huaren was responsible for the construction and supervision of casinos and promoted the introduction of the f1 grand prix in singapore.

xinhua news agency reported that the singaporean government attaches great importance to combating corruption, has a sound legal system and strict law enforcement. the current president of singapore, tharman shanmugaratnam, said in a previous interview with reporters that the singapore government takes any incident involving corruption seriously and the corruption corruption investigation bureau has been given full powers to investigate. in tharman shanmugaratnam's view, the iwaran incident is a "setback" for singapore, but singapore can use "setbacks" as an opportunity to improve its system and demonstrate transparency.