Singapore’s Lee family feud: Lee Hsien Yang, wife must choose between fugitive status and returning home to clear name, minister says

Minister K Shanmugam says Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Suet Fern ‘will have every right to provide explanations’ in perjury probe if they return to Singapore to be interviewed by police

Lee Hsien Yang has said he will remain in self-exile in a Western country and fears he will not be able to see his sister, who is extremely unwell, face to face again

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Lee Hsien Yang intends to remain in self-exile in an unnamed European country. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:06pm, 21 Mar 2023

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s younger brother and his wife have “essentially absconded” from the city state amid a police probe for perjury, authorities have said.

The new details revealed by the Minister for Home Affairs and Law, K Shanmugam, and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) come as the case involving Lee Hsien Yang and his lawyer wife Lee Suet Fern, and the long-running feud within the country’s most prominent political family remain hotly discussed on social media.

Observers have suggested the bickering among the three children of late independence leader Lee Kuan Yew could complicate the country’s politics ahead of a presidential poll later this year and a possible general election in 2024.

Lee Hsien Yang said on social media and in multiple interviews with international media that the police probe amounted to a fresh round of political persecution against him by his brother Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (pictured) government. Photo: Bloomberg

On March 3, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean – responding to a lawmaker’s query on the status of the couple – said Lee Hsien Yang and his wife had “refused to attend” a police interview on whether they had perjured themselves during legal proceedings.

Subsequently, Lee Hsien Yang said on social media and in multiple interviews with international media that the police probe amounted to a fresh round of political persecution against him by his brother’s government and that he intended to remain in self-exile in an unnamed European country.

Shanmugam said in the legislature on Monday that the couple had initially been contacted by police to attend an interview.

They were not served a specific order under the Criminal Procedure Code to attend the interview but initially agreed to it. Later, they said they would attend the interview but left the country.

“Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Mrs Lee Suet Fern will have every right to provide explanations on the matters being investigated if they eventually decide to do the right thing and cooperate with the police,” Shanmugam said.