Singaporean opposition stalwart Low Thia Khiang told court he only learned two years later that his party leadership had known since August 2021 about a lie told by a former MP in Parliament .

Low, 68, who led the Workers’ Party (WP) from 2001 to 2018, was called on Wednesday as the fourth prosecution witness in the trial of his party leader Pritam Singh.

Singh, 48, is embroiled in controversy stemming from former WP MP Raeesah Khan’s lie to Parliament in August 2021 about accompanying a rape victim to a police station. He faces two charges of giving false testimony during his testimony at parliamentary committee hearings held in December of that year.

Both parties agree that Khan told Singh on August 7, 2021, that the incident she mentioned in Parliament did not occur.

Low said he only discovered in August last year that party leaders had known about the lie since August 2021. He wondered why it took so long for Singh and party leaders to reveal that Khan had lied to parliament.

Low is among the city-state’s most respected opposition figures, having served as an MP from 1991 to 2020, making him Singapore’s longest-serving opposition MP. He remains a member of the central executive committee of the WP.