High Court dismisses Li Shengwu’s application challenging AGC’s order to serve papers
The Attorney-General’s Chambers is taking action against Mr Li Shengwu for contempt of court. Mr Li is the son of Mr Lee Hsien Yang and nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
SINGAPORE — A High Court judge has dismissed an application by the nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to challenge an order by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to personally serve him papers outside Singapore.
The decision on Monday (March 26) by Justice Kannan Ramesh, which also saw Mr Li Shengwu having to pay costs understood to be about S$6,000, paves the way for contempt of court proceedings to commence against him.
Last December, Mr Li filed an application challenging the order that the AGC obtained from the High Court, before it launched contempt of court proceedings against him in August.
In a statement to the media, Mr Li’s lawyers, Mr Abraham Vergis and Ms Asiyah Arif of Providence Law Asia, said: “While Shengwu respects the Court’s decision, he is understandably disappointed with the outcome.”
They added that Mr Li is considering whether to appeal against the decision, “given that novel and important legal issues arose for determination” of the costs.
Mr Li, 32, is a junior fellow at Harvard University, and is based in the United States.
On July 15 last year, he wrote in a Facebook post that was shared with “friends only” that the Singapore Government was “litigious” and has a “pliant court system”.
His comments accompanied a Wall Street Journal article he posted on the dispute between his father Lee Hsien Yang, his aunt Lee Wei Ling and PM Lee over the Oxley Road house of the late founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who was Mr Li’s grandfather.
The AGC wrote to Mr Li six days after the comments were made, asking him to “purge the contempt” by deleting the post and issuing a written apology on his Facebook page. Mr Li did not do so.
The AGC then filed an application for permission to start contempt of court proceedings in the High Court, which was granted on Aug 21
