Lee Hsien Yang says he is a ‘political refugee from Singapore’, has UK asylum status

The brother of former Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong says the UK has assessed he faces ‘a well-founded risk of persecution’

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Lee Hsien Yang, younger brother of Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, leaves the supreme court in 2017. Photo: AFP

Published: 3:06pm, 22 Oct 2024Updated: 11:50pm, 22 Oct 2024

Lee Hsien Yang, the brother of former Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, has said that he is a “political refugee from Singapore” under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and that he has received asylum status in the UK.

The two sons of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew have been estranged since Lee Hsien Yang, 67, the younger of the brothers, and his late sister Lee Wei Ling made public a conflict with their older brother in 2017, alleging the then prime minister was misusing his power to scuttle their efforts to demolish the family bungalow in line with their father’s wishes.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Lee Hsien Yang said he sought asylum protection in 2022 citing the “Singapore government’s attacks against [him]”.

“They prosecuted my son, brought disciplinary proceedings against my wife, and launched a bogus police investigation that has dragged on for years. On the basis of these facts, the UK has determined that I face a well-founded risk of persecution, and cannot safely return to Singapore,” he wrote.

“I sought asylum protection as a last resort. I remain a Singapore citizen and hope that some day it will become safe to return home.”

In the post, he recalled how he and his sister had written in a statement in 2017 that they did not trust Lee Hsien Loong as a brother or as a leader.