TODAY: James Gomez under police investigation

LEE CHING WERN
chingwern@newstoday.com.sg



WORKERS' Party candidate James Gomez (picture) is under investigation by the police.

Yesterday afternoon, Mr Gomez was at the airport to catch a flight when he was stopped by immigration officials. Police officers later took him to the Police Cantonment Complex where he gave a statement. His passport and boarding pass were confiscated.

Mr Gomez left the complex after midnight. He told reporters: "I remain relaxed as usual, you know, and cooperate with the police and see how I can help them."

Asked whether charges would be filed, he said: "No, er, I don't know and I can't answer that. But all I can say (is) I've given a statement ... that took me six hours to put together."

A police spokesman told TODAY that they are investigating a "complaint" by the Elections Department against Mr Gomez.

During the election campaign last week, Mr Gomez had blamed the department for losing his minority certificate form, warning them of "consequences".

After video footage of the incident emerged, proving that Mr Gomez had not submitted his form, he apologised, saying that he had been distracted due to his busy schedule. He was, however, still asked to give a fuller explanation by Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng, who said that Mr Gomez's actions did not seem to be an innocent mistake.

Yesterday morning, Mr Gomez went on a "thank you" parade around Aljunied GRC with his party colleagues to thank residents for their support after Saturday's polls, which the WP team lost to the PAP by 12 percentage points.

Before 4pm yesterday, Mr Gomez rushed to the airport to catch a flight to Sweden, where he works as a policy analyst. At the airport, he was stopped by an immigration officer who asked him to wait in order for them to "do some checks", said Mr Gomez, to TODAY.

"They took me to a corridor and asked me to sit on a chair and wait. My passport and boarding pass had been taken from me," he said.

According to the WP candidate, a police official had told him that he was being investigated for a case of criminal intimidation. At about 5pm, Mr Gomez was escorted by three police officers to the Police Cantonment Complex, where CID officers interviewed him.

Workers' Party chairman Sylvia Lim was also seen arriving at the Police Cantonment Complex shortly after 8pm. She emerged from the building after three hours at 11pm.

She said she was called in to make a statement as a witness and she did not see Mr Gomez. The police report by the Elections Department was dated yesterday, she revealed.

"We will try our best to cooperate within what we have to do under the law," she said. "The police have a duty to do, and we should follow the due process."

When asked if the party would issue a statement on the latest development, Ms Lim said: "I don't think in that sense it is a party issue, so we'll have to see."