Lee Hsien Yang, the brother of former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, has been ordered by the High Court to pay SGD 200,000 ($147,880) each to Indian-origin ministers K Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan for defaming them over their rental of state properties in an affluent suburb here.

In a judgment released on Friday, Justice Goh Yihan explained his reasons for awarding the damages to the two Ministers, who had filed separate defamation claims against Mr. Lee, the youngest son of the city state’s founder Prime Minister, the Late Lee Kuan Yew.

The lawsuits were initiated over comments Lee Hsien Yang made on his Facebook page on July 23 last year, suggesting that the Ministers had acted corruptly by having the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) give them preferential treatment in the rental of the Ridout Road properties.

Mr. Lee, who is not in Singapore, also charged that “trust in the People’s Action Party (PAP) PAP has been shattered”, pointing to then-PM Lee Hsien Loong’s “failure of leadership”.

The People’s Action Party (PAP), founded by the late Lee Kuan Yew, has ruled Singapore ever since independence.

The Facebook comments came after the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), in its findings released a month before the post, said there had been no wrongdoing or preferential treatment given to the two ministers.

Mr. Lee did not appear in court to defend himself against the allegations.

Mr. Shanmugam, who is the Law and Home Affairs Minister, and Foreign Affairs Minister Balakrishnan were represented by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh and took the stand briefly in a hearing earlier this month.

Justice Goh said he was satisfied that Lee had “consciously chosen not to respond” to the claims.

Mr. Lee cannot contest his liability for defamation as he did not turn up or find a lawyer to represent him on the assessment of damages, Justice Goh said, adding that he had to decide the case based on the claimants in the absence of any countervailing material the former PM’s younger brother could have produced.

“They are public leaders and persons of the highest integrity who undoubtedly have a high standing. Accordingly, this is a factor that points towards the award of higher damages,” Channel News Asia quoted Justice Goh as saying.

Mr. Lee is also “well-known in Singapore” with over 89,000 followers on Facebook, a factor that points towards awarding higher damages, the Judge said, agreeing with the Ministers’ arguments.

Justice Goh also found that Mr. Lee had “acted with malice” in posting the offending words, justifying not only higher damages but aggravated damages.

“Based on the evidence before me, I find that the defendant knew the offending words were false, that he published them recklessly, and/or without considering or caring whether they are true or not,” said Justice Goh.

He said the evidence shows that Mr. Lee’s post came after CPIB’s investigation already found no preferential treatment given to the Ministers over the Ridout Road properties.

“The CPIB’s investigation also established that there was no evidence that the claimants had abused their position for personal gain. This is because trees were felled with the National Parks Board’s approval, and the works that the SLA had done to 26 and 31 Ridout Road as landlord were to make them safe and habitable in accordance with conservation guidelines,” said Justice Goh.

“Thus, the works done by the SLA prior to handover were consistent with its general practices and comparable to that done for similar properties.”

In determining the appropriate amount of damages, Justice Goh referred to past cases of defamation involving Cabinet or Prime Ministers.

The general and aggravated damages awarded to a Prime Minister have ranged from “SGD230,000 to SGD260,000 in the 1980s to sums in excess of SGD300,000 in the last 20 years”, the Judge noted.

On top of the damages, he ordered Mr. Lee to pay costs of SGD 51,000 to each Minister, according to the Channel report.

Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong’s brother Lee Hsien Yang sued for defamation over allegations relating to their rental of two state-owned bungalows | file photo
| Photo Credit: AFP

Singapore’s two Indian-origin cabinet Ministers have sued Lee Hsien Yang, the younger brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, for defamation over allegations relating to their rental of two state-owned bungalows.

The case conference will take place on Tuesday (September 5) at 9 am, according to a hearing list on the Singapore Courts’ website, Channel News Asia reported on Saturday.

The two ministers – Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan – had sent lawyers’ letters to Lee Hsien Yang in July, saying they would sue unless he apologises, withdraws his allegations and pays damages relating to the colonial-era bungalows in Ridout Road.

In a Facebook post on July 27, Shanmugam said Lee Hsien Yang had accused him and Balakrishnan of “acting corruptly and for personal gain by having Singapore Land Authority (SLA) give us preferential treatment by illegally felling trees without approval, and also having SLA pay for renovations to 26 and 31 Ridout Road”.

These allegations are false, Mr. Shanmugam added.

Lee Hsien Yang and his wife left the country after declining to attend a police interview in July 2022 that relates to lying in judicial proceedings about the will of his late father and founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

Mr. Shanmugam says he rented Ridout Road property to prepare for sale of family home, not profiting from rental.

The issue surrounding the rental of the two Ridout Road state properties surfaced in early May when opposition politician and Reform Party chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam questioned if the ministers were “paying less than the fair market value” for the bungalows.

The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) was tasked to investigate whether there was any misconduct related to the transactions and found no wrongdoing.

The CPIB report, released on June 28, said the two ministers did not benefit from getting any privileged information. They were not given preferential treatment and their rental rates were comparable to that of neighbouring properties, the report stated.

The issue was debated in parliament on July 3.

Lee Hsien Yang has made at least eight Facebook posts on Ridout Road before and after CPIB’s report and the parliament debate, according to the channel report.

A Facebook post on July 23 resulted in a correction direction under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), with the Law Ministry saying that it contained untrue statements.

Although Lee Hsien Yang had put up a correction notice as required, he also published a new post two days later saying he stood by what he wrote.

Pointing out that his post was made in the United Kingdom, Lee Hsien Yang said, “If K. Shanmugam and V. Balakrishnan believe that they have a real case, then they should sue me in the U.K.” Although Lee Hsien Yang is overseas, he can still be sued in Singapore, according to the media report.