SINGAPORE — The Attorney-General's Chambers' (AGC) proceedings against Mr Li Shengwu for alleged contempt of court have hit a roadblock, after the Court of Appeal on Monday (Sept 3) allowed Mr Li's lawyers to appeal against the High Court's decision that the AGC can personally serve him papers outside of Singapore.

In doing so, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, who heard the case with Judges of Appeal Judith Prakash and Steven Chong, noted that the court needs to look into the basis of exercising jurisdiction over someone who allegedly committed contempt of court while overseas, at the time that proceedings begin.

The AGC is taking legal action against Mr Li, the son of Mr Lee Hsien Yang and nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, over a private Facebook post he made on July 15 last year. The 33-year-old is a United States-based assistant professor of economics at Harvard University.

Earlier in March, Justice Kannan Ramesh had dismissed Mr Li's application in the High Court to challenge the order that the AGC obtained, which allowed it to personally serve him papers outside of the Republic.

The decision, which also saw Mr Li having to pay costs understood to be about S$6,000, permitted the AGC to commence contempt of court proceedings against him.

On Monday, Chief Justice Menon said the apex court would be giving directions for the hearing for Mr Li's challenge of Justice Kannan's decision to be expedited. The appeal will be heard at a date to be decided.

WHAT THE CASE IS ALL ABOUT

In his Facebook post shared with "friends only", Mr Li wrote that the Singapore Government was "litigious" and has a "pliant court system".

His comments accompanied a Wall Street Journal article which he posted on the dispute between his father Lee Hsien Yang, his aunt Lee Wei Ling and PM Lee over the Oxley Road family house that belonged to the late founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who was Mr Li's grandfather.

The AGC wrote to Mr Li six days after his comments were made, asking him to "purge the contempt" by deleting the post and issuing a written apology on his Facebook page by Aug 4 last year.

On Aug 4, 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. However, he did not apologise.

Noting that Mr Li had not complied with its requests, the AGC filed an application to start contempt of court proceedings against him in the High Court, which was granted on Aug 21 last year.

Committal papers were personally served on Mr Li in the US on Oct 17 last year.

In December, Mr Li's lawyers tried to challenge the order obtained by the AGC that allowed it to personally serve him papers outside of Singapore. Justice Kannan dismissed their application.

In response, on June 7, Mr Li filed another application for leave to appeal against the judge's decision. This was granted by the apex court on Monday.

Mr Li's father, Mr Lee Hsien Yang, had on Monday morning questioned why the AGC is continuing its prosecution of his son for contempt of court, but appears not to have gone after international media and others for "much stronger criticism" of Singapore's courts. He did not cite examples of the criticism put forth by international media.