MFA director-general gets jail for lying to ministry about use of diplomatic bags

SINGAPORE: A director-general at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) was on Monday (May 20) sentenced to a week in jail for lying to the ministry about his request to use diplomatic bags to courier luxury watches for a friend.

Gilbert Oh Hin Kwan, 45, pleaded guilty last month to a charge of providing false information to a public servant in 2023.

Two other charges were considered in sentencing. These were for abetting the cheating of MFA over the luxury watches, and cheating MFA over a package of Panadol sent through the diplomatic bag service.

Defence lawyer Mr Shashi Nathan of Withers KhattarWong filed an appeal for his client shortly after the sentence was given.

The prosecution had sought a fine of S$6,000 to S$9,000, while the defence had asked for a fine of less than S$5,000.

But District Judge Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz found that the level of harm caused or likely to be caused by Oh's actions crossed the threshold for imprisonment.

While she accepted that "no actual harm has resulted" from Oh's false statement, she said the court's enquiry did not end there as it had to consider the potential to cause harm.

This included the "potential to impinge on trust in Singapore's international relationships and cause embarrassment to the MFA, if there were no redress", said the judge.

The judge highlighted that under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, diplomatic bags should only contain diplomatic documents or articles for official use and cannot be opened or detained.

Diplomatic bags are a protected means of communication between a state's foreign missions and consulates, she noted.

Oh's requested use of the diplomatic bag service to convey luxury watches without disclosing the true owner and recipient of the package was "not just a gross violation of the diplomatic bag service, but impermissible", she said.

Oh previously admitted to giving MFA's deputy secretary for management false information about his request to a colleague to send a package containing luxury watches through the diplomatic bag service in January 2023.

He did this after agreeing to help a friend who is a Chinese national bring watches that belonged to her from China to Singapore. Oh asked a colleague in Singapore's embassy in Beijing to help send the package through the diplomatic bag on Jan 12, 2023.

He lied to his MFA colleague that the parents of his friend, whom he said was a Chinese diplomat, wanted to have a package sent to him in Singapore.

Oh's friend was not actually a diplomat. He had said she was one as he thought that would make his colleague more likely to agree to his request.

A sealed package of 21 luxury watches, a ring and about seven children's books was sent to Oh's colleague's address in Beijing.

Oh's colleague ended up carrying the package in his luggage on a flight from China to Singapore on Jan 17, 2023 as the diplomatic bag service was suspended at the time.

The luggage was screened by Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers at Changi Airport, and the sealed package containing the watches was opened.

The matter was referred to the police, and MFA was informed. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) also started investigations.

On the morning of Jan 19, MFA's then deputy secretary for management told Oh to provide a written account of the circumstances in which the package had been brought into Singapore.

Oh was concerned about disciplinary action being taken against him as it could impact his career progression. He decided to tell MFA that the watches belonged to his father as he believed the ministry was more likely to be lenient than if he told the truth.

He gave this false account to MFA in an email on Jan 19, 2023, and also repeated it in a statement given to CPIB on Jan 20, 2023.

The falsehood came to light when Oh admitted later that day to CPIB that it was a friend, and not his father, who had asked to transport the luxury watches.

Judge Sripathy-Shanaz rejected the argument made by both the defence and prosecution that Oh's lie only concealed the "true ownership" of the package. Instead, it sought to cast the incident in "a vastly different light".

She said that Oh lied knowing that this would be likely to cause MFA's deputy secretary to omit probing further into the incident.

His falsehood involved "misleadingly recasting the predicate act as an innocuous instance of helping his father transport personal items, when he was actually doing so at the behest of a third-party foreign national who, as the defence itself accepted, 'wanted to avoid the hassle of too many explanations' and sought to 'avoid' scrutiny from the authorities", said the judge.

She also stressed the importance of internal investigations by public institutions, which she said uphold transparency and accountability in the public service, and were crucial to maintain public trust and confidence.

"The potential harm to the public interest is all the more pronounced, real and significant, when a high-ranking public servant such as Mr Oh, seeks to subvert the internal investigations of the public institution he serves. Such a breach requires a strong response."

The judge also found it "particularly aggravating" that Oh took "active steps to bolster the deception" by telling his father about the lie he intended to tell. Oh's intention must have been for his father to corroborate his lie should the need arise, she said.

Oh remains out on bail of S$15,000. The court previously heard that he had offered MFA his resignation, but this could not be processed while his case was ongoing.

The penalty for giving false information to a public servant is imprisonment for up to two years, a fine, or both.