Shanmugam & Vivian Sue Lee Hsien Yang For Defamation Over Facebook Post He Made In July
In July, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan threatened to sue Mr Lee Hsien Yang for defamation.
The ministers have since followed up on this and commenced their legal action against him.
Their cases will be heard next Tuesday (5 Sep).
Supreme Court to hear cases involving Shanmugam & Vivian against Lee
According to a hearing list from the Singapore Courts website, two cases of interest are scheduled to be heard on 5 Sep at 9am.
They are Shanmugam Kasiviswanathan v Lee Hsien Yang and Vivian Balakrishnan v Lee Hsien Yang.
Source: Singapore Courts
Both case conferences — i.e. preliminary hearings where the court sets timelines and gives directions for the proceedings — will be heard at the Supreme Court chambers.
Both cases involve defamation
The website further details that in both cases, Mr Lee is being accused of defamation.
Source: Singapore Courts
Both ministers are represented by the same team of lawyers — Davinder Singh Chambers.
Source: Singapore Courts
According to their website, the law firm specialises in dispute resolution and international arbitration.
Shanmugan & Vivian asked Lee to apologise or they would sue
The saga started when Mr Lee, the younger son of founding father Lee Kuan Yew, made a Facebook post on 23 July on the Ridout Road saga.
This earned him a Correction Direction under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) as the Ministry of Law said his post contained “false statements of fact”.
Source: Lee Hsien Yang on Facebook
Mr Shanmugam and Dr Balakrishnan subsequently said that they would sue Mr Lee if he didn’t apologise for the claims. The ministers had been cleared by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) after an investigation.
However, Mr Lee remained defiant, saying the ministers should sue him in the United Kingdom (UK) as he made the post there.
Lee Hsien Yang Says Ministers Should Sue Him In The UK As Post Was Made There
He and his wife Suet Fern left Singapore after the police asked them to attend an interview in June 2022. The couple hasn’t returned to Singapore since then.
Since he’s not in Singapore, it’s uncertain whether the lawsuit against him here will be admissible in the UK.
Now that legal proceedings have commenced, it looks like there will be more to come in this saga.
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Featured image adapted from K Shanmugam Sc on Facebook, Lee Hsien Yang on Facebook and Vivian Balakrishnan on Facebook.
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