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Cecilia was pressured into performing fellatio for former CNB chief, says prosecution[/h]
September 26th, 2012 |
Author:
Editorial
Cecilia Sue Siew Nang
The woman implicated in the high-profile sex-for-favor case was pressured into performing fellatio for the accused, said the prosecution in its opening address on the first day of the trial of former Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) chief Ng Boon Gay.
Cecilia Sue Siew Nang was a victim who was worried about jeopardising her work and thus would not reject his “sexual overtures because she had business interests in mind”, said the prosecution, while Ng was portrayed as a man who insisted on sexual favours even though he knew that she was pursuing procurement opportunities with the organisation he headed.
The 46-year-old Ng is accused of corruptly obtaining sexual favors in the form of oral sex on four occasions between July and December last year from 36-year-old Cecilia Sue while she was sales manager at Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) and senior sales manager at Oracle Singapore; in return for furthering the business interests of the two IT companies.
The prosecution, in its opening statement acknowledged that while Ng had at no time influenced or was directly involved in the process of awarding two separate IT contracts worth S$320,000 related to a project Cecilia Sue was working on, Ng nevertheless had ultimate sign-off approval on any vendor deals worth up to S$1 million.
As such, Deputy Chief Prosecutor (DCP) Tan Ken Hwee said, Ng “pressured” Cecilia Sue into performing fellatio on four occasions knowing his final approval was necessary and that she had to maintain a cordial relationship with the government agencies under her purview.
DCP Tan added that in one specific instance,
Ng had demanded oral sex from Cecilia Sue “on the same day that CNB officially contracted to buy certain products which she had marketed”.
In addition, on that same day (sometime before the sex act) Cecilia had suggested a specific piece of software to the accused as being something that could help CNB.
DCP Tan said that Cecilia Sue acceded to Ng’s demands because she was concerned “about contracts that she had obtained, and would be seeking to obtain, directly or indirectly, from the Central Narcotics Bureau”.
She was also concerned that if she did not give in or raised the alarm and reported the incidents, “she would jeopardise the existing commercial relationship” she had built with the CNB.
DCP Tan argued that the absence of lapses in the procurement processes at the CNB was not material to the case because under the Prevention of Corruption Act, where a civil servant obtains gratification “from a person that has or is seeking to have business dealings with the Government, he is presumed to have done so corruptly”.
Under the law, it is also “no defence that the purpose for which the gratification is given, is never, for want of a better word, consummated”, DCP Tan said.
All that is required is that the recipient of the gratification had reason to believe that the gratification was offered to him as inducement. This, even if there is no actual interference with Government procurement process on account of the gratification.
He reiterated that the prosecution does not “use the criminal justice system to enforce marriage vows”, nor to “police morality”.
However, DCP Tan was quick to add that the situation is very different when a public officer enters or continues a sexual relationship with a person who has business dealings with the very department that he is in charge of.
DCP Tan also sought to apply for an anonymity order as Cecilia Sue is supposedly suffering from clinical depression as a result of the media glare.
After submitting a psychiatric report on Cecilia Sue to the court, DCP Tan said that further publication of Cecilia Sue’s name and pictures will be “detrimental” to her mental well-being, and should be prohibited “in the interest of justice”.
DCP Tan added that it is important Cecilia Sue gives evidence “without distress to her well-being”.
But defence lawyer Senior Counsel (SC) Tan Chee Meng said it was the first time in his career that he had come across a request for a “critical principal witness” in a trial to be anonymous.
Calling the prosecution’s application unprecedented, SC Tan also argued that the order, if granted, would be an “exercise in futility”, as Cecilia Sue’s identity has already been well publicised since June this year.
SC Tan also stressed “the fundamental principal that there should be open justice”.
He further noted that should an anonymity order be granted and his client eventually acquitted, his client’s “name may never be cleared in the court of public opinion”, as it would not be known that he was cleared of the charges in relation to Cecilia Sue.
DCP Tan’s application for an anonymity order was rejected by District Judge (DJ) Siva Shanmugam, saying that he was unconvinced by the prosecution’s arguments.
Meanwhile, SC Tan argued that
his client had been in a relationship with Cecilia Sue from 2009, therefore “personal indiscretions aside”, Ng is not corrupt.
This claim (about the affair) was consistent with the statement of agreed facts submitted to the court, that
Ng “got acquainted with Cecilia at a pub in Tanjong Pagar, through a mutual friend”, sometime in early 2009 – when he was the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Singapore Police Force.
SC Tan then applied for the court to order a discharge amounting to an acquittal for his client, on the basis that the charges framed against Ng “are so general and lacking in particulars” that his client is “severely prejudiced, contrary to the proper administration of criminal justice”.
The prosecution should ascertain the specific products, or approved contracts that were implicated in the alleged corruption, SC Tan argued, but this was rejected by DJ Siva Shanmugam, saying that he found the prosecution’s charges sufficiently framed.
The trial is slated for 18 days and is expected to take place over three months, with five witnesses called by the prosecution.
The witnesses are Cecilia Sue, Oracle Singapore’s Managing Director Leslie Ong, the General Manager of Hitachi Systems, the CNB Deputy Director, and a Ministry of Finance official.
Ng faces up to S$100,000 in fine and/or five years imprisonment for each charge, if convicted.
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