SINGAPORE, Oct 7 — Former Singapore transport minister S. Iswaran said in a statement on Facebook that he will not appeal the one-year prison sentence handed out to him after pleading guilty to five charges.

In the statement, he said that while it was important that the prosecution amended two corruption charges against him to instead charge him under Section 165 of the Penal Code, regarding the acceptance of gifts by public servants, he accepted his sentence.

He said: "I accept that as a minister what I did was wrong under section 165. I accept full responsibility for my actions and apologise unreservedly to all Singaporeans.”

Iswaran pleaded guilty to five charges, four of them being obtaining valuable items as a public servant from David Lum, managing director of construction company Lum Chang Holdings and Ong Beng Seng, chairman of Formula One (F1) race promoter Singapore GP.

The fifth charge was for obstructing the course of justice where he had paid S$5,700 (RM18,722) for a business flight to Singapore from Doha, originally made at Ong’s expense.

Iswaran said the past 15 months had extracted an emotional toll on his loved ones and his family’s wellbeing and that he hoped that by not appealing his sentence, "we can put the pain and anguish behind us, move forward and rebuild our lives together.”

He also thanked his family and supporters, as well as his lawyers.

Iswaran ended his statement by addressing his constituents: "Serving my constituents and Singaporeans over the past 3 decades has been the greatest honour of my life. As this chapter of my life comes to a close, my family and I look to the future with gratitude and renewed hope.”