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Singapore ex-PM Lee Hsien Loong’s brother ordered to pay US$296,000 for defaming 2 ministers

  • A judge said Lee Hsien Yang made defamatory allegations against K. Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan ‘of the gravest kind’
  • He claimed in a Facebook post that the ministers received preferential treatment for renting state properties

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Lee Hsien Yang, the estranged brother of Singapore’s former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong. Photo: AFP
Reuters
The brother of former Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong has been ordered by a court to pay S$400,000 (US$296,000) to two government ministers in a defamation suit, according to a written judgment published on Friday.
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Lee Hsien Yang, the estranged younger brother of the former prime minister, made defamatory allegations against the two ministers “of the gravest kind”, wrote Justice Goh Yihan.

The younger Lee, once the chief executive of Singtel, was in July 2023 ordered by the government to correct a Facebook post the law ministry said contained falsehoods about a controversy over Law Minister K. Shanmugam and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan renting state properties.

The government had in June 2023 cleared the two ministers of wrongdoing, saying there was no evidence to suggest abuse of position for personal gain.

The judge said Lee did not apologise or remove the post despite being given an opportunity to do so by the ministers, instead “doubled down” in another post saying he stood by what he said.

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The court awarded S$150,000 in general damages and S$50,000 in aggravated damages to each minister, according to the reports.

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