The mother of former national table tennis player has started to serve her six-week jail term on Friday, as she was found guilty of bribing an official of tennis association to be lenient to her son in disciplinary proceedings.
The accused, Su Fengxian, who is the mother of former table tennis player Li Hu, had appealed against her conviction and the sentence. She was out on bail after District Judge Chay Yeun Fatt sentenced her in January 2018. But on Friday she told the High Court that she was withdrawing her appeal. She was not represented by any lawyer.
Reports said that after three-day trial the 54-year-old Su was found guilty of offering S$3,200 to Loy Soo Han, the technical director of Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) in Lorong 6 Toa Payoh on October 17, 2016.
Judge Chay said that there was public interest in protecting the integrity of STTA, which governs one of the major sports of the country.
The 29-year-old, former world junior singles champion, Li had been sacked after a disciplinary committee hearing in October 2016, as he the authority found that he had breached the Code of Conduct multiple times. Li allowed a female friend to spend the night at the STTA hostel in Toa Payoh.
Su was in China when her son informed her on October 14, 2016, that he was facing disciplinary action from STTA. Later, Su called STTA's technical director Loy several times to plead for leniency on her son's behalf. She also contacted STTA President Ellen Lee on social media for the same purpose. On October 17, She appeared in Loy's office with a cash-filled envelope, after which he stopped her and asked her to leave.
Earlier the prosecution sought for four months' jail term for Su but her previous lawyer Alfred Dodwell urged for a fine of not more than $2,000.
