Former Transport Minister S. Iswaran said it was important to him that prosecutors reduced two corruption charges to charges of receiving illegal gifts at the start of the trial last month. Iswaran had pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing justice and four of accepting gifts from two businessmen with whom he had official business.

Singapore ex-minister S. Iswaran will not be appealing the 12-month prison sentence handed to him for obtaining valuable items as a public servant and obstruction of justice.

S. Iswaran will today hand himself into a Singapore court to become the first ex-cabinet minister to be jailed in almost half a century, in a scandal that has riveted a city that prides itself on good governance.

Singapore’s former transport minister S Iswaran said he would not be appealing his 12-month jail term, which starts today, after he was convicted of four counts of receiving gifts and one of obstructing justice.

Former Singapore transport minister S Iswaran said in a statement on Facebook that he will not appeal the one-year prison sentence handed out to him after pleading guilty to five charges. In the statement,

The former transport minister says he will begin his one-year jail term on Monday and ‘apologises unreservedly to all Singaporeans’.