The judge who heard both Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s and blogger Leong Sze Hian’s striking out applications has reserved judgment and is set to announce the judgment in “written grounds” in the near future.
Leong, who initially said that he was “bewildered” by PM Lee’s actions, later said that he is fighting the claims against him in court and also filed a counterclaim against PM Lee for “abusing the process of the court in bringing the claim against me.”
According to CNA, PM Lee’s lawyer Davinder Singh applied to strike out the counterclaim by Leong earlier, “on the ground that it has no basis in law and is completely hopeless”.
Leong then applied to strike out PM Lee’s original defamation claim against him on the basis that it is “scandalous, frivolous and vexatious; and/or may prejudice, embarrass or delay the fair trial of the action; and/or is an abuse of the process of the Court”.
The law firm representing Leong, Carson Law Chambers, revealed in a statement on Monday (25 Feb), that “Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s application to strike out our client Mr Leong Sze Hian’s counter-claim for abuse of process of court, and Mr Leong’s application to strike out Prime Minister Leong Hsien Loong’s libel claim were heard together in the High Court.”
Revealing that the hearing took over three hours, Leong’s defence team said that they presented “Mr Leong’s case forcefully” and that they were pleased with the hearing.
Justice Aedit Abdullah has reserved judgement for both applications. Carson Law Chambers confirmed that the “Learned Judge will release his written grounds of decision in due course.”