News

Doctor & Assistant Accused of Lying to MOH Granted Bail After Being Remanded for 10 Days

2022-01-31 , 12:22 pm

We know that Dr Jipson Quah worked with Iris Koh to falsify vaccination records and lie to the Ministry of Health (MOH).

We know that his charge got amended to a more serious one.

We also know that he’s not eligible for bail.

Eh wait, sorry, he wasn’t. Yup, he now is.

His assistant, Thomas Chua is too.

Timeline of Events

When the case was first investigated, Quah’s clinics were suspended after Quah, Chua and Iris Koh, the founder of Healing the divide, were arrested. (Iris Koh also sued the government at this point, but, I mean, she’s not the focus here…)

Quah was later placed on leave by his pharmaceutical company before the charges for all three individuals were amended to become more severe.

Quah and Chua were previously charged with abetment by conspiracy to cheat, but the charges were changed to one count of fraud by false representation under Section 424A of the Penal Code for both of them.

Chua then expressed that he did not deserve the heavy sentence as he was only the middleman and only did what he was told.

This was when the court declared both of them ineligible for bail, but that changed this morning (31 January).

Jipson Quah and Thomas Chua Granted Bail

Basically, if you don’t know what’s been up since his last hearing, you should probably watch this video first:

After being placed on leave and having his charge amended to a more severe one, the court also announced that he was no longer eligible for bail. The court even rejected his lawyer’s initial appeal for bail.

However, after being in remand since 21 January, both Quah and Chua were deemed to no longer be required to be in custody for investigations by the prosecutor.

He asked the court to offer Quah and Chua $20,000 and $15,000 for bail respectively. An adjournment of six weeks was also requested as the investigations for this case are currently taking place.

Additionally, Quah has changed his lawyers. Previously represented by lawyers from Witters KhattarWong, he discharged them and switched to Mr Anand Nalachandran to represent his case instead. Chua is still unrepresented.

Iris Koh’s Bail

As mentioned in one of our previous articles, Koh, who is hospitalised in Singapore General Hospital (SGH), is currently ineligible for bail.

She has not been granted bail along with Quah and Chua.

However, her lawyer will be submitting an urgent application to the High Court to appeal for her bail today (31 January).

Quah Not Allowed to Communicate With Others Involved

However, according to CNA, despite being granted bail, Deputy Public Prosecutor Samuel Yap asked the court to “order Quah not to communicate with other people named in the charge and case”. He was also not allowed to communicate with Chua and Koh.

However, Mr Nalachandran refuted this point, noting that Quah would need to converse with witnesses who happen to be his clinic’s staff.

The judge then ordered Quah was not to communicate with prosecution witnesses with regards to the case. He allowed him to do so with clinic staff, but only for work-related issues.

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Chua was supposed to appear in court on 4 February, but it seems like the court date may be pushed back as well due to the six-week adjournment.

Koh’s next hearing is also on 4 February, although it is unclear if her case will be adjourned as well.

Well, at least both of them can spend Chinese New Year with their families, although they probably won’t be able to dine out…

All three parties are still facing up to a 20-year jail sentence, fine or both if they are convicted of their charges.