A former Singaporean Cabinet minister has begun a one-year prison term for receiving illegal gifts. Former Transport Minister S.

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.

The sentence for S. Iswaran, the former transportation minister who pleaded guilty last week, was longer than what prosecutors had sought.

A former Singaporean Cabinet minister has been sentenced to a year in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of receiving illegal gifts, in a rare criminal case involving a minister in the Asian financial hub.

A Singapore court was due on Thursday to sentence a former transport minister convicted last week of receiving more than $300,000 worth of gifts, in what could be the first jailing of an ex-cabinet member in a city-state known for clean governance.

A Singapore court will sentence S. Iswaran on Thursday after the former transport minister pleaded guilty to bribery and obstruction of justice, marking a quick end to one of the biggest political scandals in decades.

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’.