BBC News: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Singapore minister has been charged with corruption, an extremely rare development in a country known for its squeaky-clean governance.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Transport Minister S Iswaran was handed 27 charges including 24 charges of obtaining gratification as a public servant, two charges of corruption and one charge of obstructing the course of justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Iswaran pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His arrest in July – along with tycoon Ong Beng Seng – shocked the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Iswaran and Mr Ong played key roles in bringing the Formula One Grand Prix to Singapore in 2008,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon his arrest, the minister was asked to take a leave of absence until investigations were completed – while still getting paid S$8,500 (US$6,330; \u00a35,000) a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Singapore’s lawmakers are among the best-paid in the world, with ministers earning a starting salary of almost $35,000 a month. The country’s leadership has said its high salaries are aimed at avoiding corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Iswaran was elected into Singapore’s parliament in 1997 and was promoted to a full minister in 2011. As a minister he has held the trade, communications and most recently, transport portfolios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In late 1986, former Singapore minister Teh Cheang Wan took his own life while under investigation for alleged corruption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BBC News: A Singapore minister has been charged with corruption, an extremely rare development in a country known for its squeaky-clean governance. Transport Minister S Iswaran was handed 27 charges including 24 charges of obtaining gratification as a public servant, two charges of corruption and one charge of obstructing the course of justice. Mr Iswaran pleaded not guilty. His arrest in July – along with tycoon Ong Beng Seng – shocked the nation. Mr Iswaran and Mr Ong played key roles in bringing the Formula One Grand Prix to Singapore in 2008, Upon his arrest, the minister was asked to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37174,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37172\/revisions\/37174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}