Court rejects guilty plea of ex-table tennis champ’s mother
Su Fengxian (centre), mother of sacked national paddler Li Hu, was charged in court on Friday (Nov 25) with attempting to bribe a Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) official to "show leniency" to her son during disciplinary proceedings. Photo: Robin Choo/TODAY
SINGAPORE — A district judge on Friday (Nov 25) rejected the guilty plea of former national paddler Li Hu’s mother, who was charged in court with attempting to bribe an official from the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA).
This was because Su Fengxian, 54, disagreed with a material point in the prosecution’s case, that she offered an envelope containing money to STTA technical director Loy Soo Han. She claimed she took the envelope out, but returned it to her bag.
Judge Adam Nakhoda said that while the charge was that Su had offered a sum of money to Loy, she had “categorically stated” that she did not do so. “As such, I cannot accept your plea,” he said.
The prosecution’s case was that a few days before the incident took place, Su received a call from Li, telling her that he was facing disciplinary action by the STTA after he let his girlfriend into his dormitory to stay overnight.
Su then called Loy to plead for leniency, but was rejected. On Oct 17, the Chinese national flew to Singapore from Guangzhou, China, and she and Li tried to speak to Loy about the disciplinary case in his office. Loy said that the matter was before a disciplinary committee and out of his hands.
Later that morning, they approached Loy again to plead for leniency, but to no avail. While Li was leaving the office, Su took out an envelope containing €2,000 (S$3,000) from her bag and offered it to Loy, the prosecution said.
On Friday, in court, Su disagreed with this point. Speaking through a Mandarin interpreter, Su said that she had taken the envelope out of her bag and even though she wanted to hand it to Loy, she did not do so and placed it back in her bag.
The case has been sent back for a pre-trial conference on Dec 1.
Her bail, set at S$15,000, has been extended.
Last month, the STTA terminated Li’s contract after a disciplinary committee found him guilty of insubordination.
The 28-year-old had breached the association’s rules by bringing a woman into the team dormitory on many occasions despite being given several verbal warnings.
Other disciplinary issues he faced throughout his employment with the STTA also led to the decision to terminate his contract.
Li — who came to Singapore from Hubei in 2010 and became a citizen the following year — was then assisting the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) with the probe in October.
A former world junior champion, Li had partnered Gao Ning to win Singapore’s first bronze medal in the men’s doubles at the 2014 Asian Games, and was expected to succeed veteran paddlers Gao and Yang Zi.
In a press release on Friday, the CPIB stated that Singapore adopts a zero-tolerance approach towards corruption.
“The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau takes a serious view of any corrupt practices and will not hesitate to take action against any party involved in such acts,” it said.
If convicted of making corrupt transactions with agents, Su could be fined up to S$100,000 or jailed up to five years, or both.
