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AGC to start legal action on Li Shengwu for contempt

SINGAPORE — The High Court has given the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) the green light to launch contempt of court proceedings against Mr Li Shengwu, the son of Mr Lee Hsien Yang and nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Li Shengwu made public his replies to the Attorney General’s Chambers on Aug 21. Photo: Li Shengwu/Facebook

Li Shengwu made public his replies to the Attorney General’s Chambers on Aug 21. Photo: Li Shengwu/Facebook

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SINGAPORE — The High Court has given the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) the green light to launch contempt of court proceedings against Mr Li Shengwu, the son of Mr Lee Hsien Yang and nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Permission was granted by Justice Kannan Ramesh during a closed door hearing on Monday (Aug 21), bringing proceedings to the next stage, Senior State Counsel Francis Ng told reporters. The AGC will have 14 days — until Sept 4 — to write to the court to start proceedings, then serve court documents on Mr Li, so that he has a chance to respond.

A hearing can go on whether or not Mr Li or his lawyers are present.

If satisfied that Mr Li has scandalised the court, the High Court could make an order for committal and sentence him to a fine, or a jail term.

Currently, no cap is stipulated for penalties imposed by the courts for contempt. Although the Administration of Justice (Protection) Bill that Parliament passed last year gives the High Court or Court of Appeal powers to impose a fine of up to S$100,000, and/or a jail term of up to three years for contempt, it has not come into force.

The alleged contempt surfaced in a private Facebook post made by Mr Li, 32, on July 15.

In the post, the Harvard academic had shared a Wall Street Journal article on the dispute between his father, uncle and aunt Lee Wei Ling over his late grandfather founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s property at 38 Oxley Road. He also wrote that the Singapore Government was “litigious” and has a “pliant court system”.

The AGC wrote to Mr Li six days later, requesting him to “purge the contempt” by deleting the post and issuing a written apology and undertaking on his Facebook page. 

Noting that he had not complied by Aug 4, they filed an application for permission to start contempt of court proceedings in the High Court.

But on the same day, Mr Li wrote on Facebook that he had not intended to attack the Singapore judiciary, or undermine public confidence in the administration of justice, and had amended his original post accordingly to clarify.

On Monday, he posted on Facebook again, uploading a letter that the AGC had sent to him dated Aug 8 and his response.

In the AGC letter, Mr Ng said that the authorities were willing to “discontinue” legal action, should Mr Li publish an apology and undertaking. This was a revision of their terms, claimed Mr Li.

In his reply to AGC, Mr Li said: “The truth matters: I cannot confess to a crime I did not commit in return for a discontinuance of the legal proceedings against me.”

He also noted double standards by the AGC, which had “set its sights on policing (his) private post”, while ignoring the republication of this post by others.

Asked by reporters about the supposed revision of terms, Mr Ng said that since the original post had been amended, there was no longer a need to take it down. .embed-responsive { position: relative; display: block; height: 0; padding: 0; overflow: hidden; } .embed-responsive .embed-responsive-item, .embed-responsive iframe, .embed-responsive embed, .embed-responsive object, .embed-responsive video { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; bottom: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%; border: 0; } .embed-responsive-16by9 { padding-bottom: 56.25%; } .embed-responsive-4by3 { padding-bottom: 75%; }

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