Leong Sze Hian loses in court appeal, PM Lee’s lawyer Davinder Singh awarded S$20,000 in costs

Earlier today (September 27), blogger and activist Leong Sze Hian had his appeal against the striking out of his counterclaim against Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong heard in the Court of Appeal.

It was a public hearing, with the panel of three judges hearing the appeal being Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justice Of Appeal Andrew Phang And Justice Of Appeal Judith Prakash.

After the hearing, Leong took to social media to announce that, “Today, after 1.5 hours of oral arguments by my counsel Lim Tean and no oral arguments by Davinder Singh – the Court of Appeal has dismissed my appeal in my counter-claim against the Prime Minister”.

He added that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s lawyer “Davinder Singh asked for $23,000 costs and was awarded $20,000”.

PM Lee earlier filed a defamation claim against Leong for sharing an article alleging that PM Lee played a part in laundering money from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), on his personal Facebook page. The article, which was not written by Mr Leong, garnered 22 reactions, five comments and 18 shares.

Mr Leong is fighting the claim against him in court and filed a counterclaim against PM Lee for “abusing the process of the court in bringing the claim against me.” PM Lee’s lawyer Davinder Singh applied to strike out the counterclaim by Leong, before Leong applied to strike out PM Lee’s original defamation claim against him.

After hearing the striking out applications by both parties last month, Justice Aedit Abdullah struck out Mr Leong’s counterclaim as he delivered his judgment on 12 March. The judge cited Mr Leong’s failure to disclose a “reasonable cause of action” in his counterclaim as the reason for his decision.

In light of the judge’s decision, Leong filed his appeal, which was heard on Friday (September 27).

The judge also ordered Mr Leong to pay costs and Davinder Singh Chambers (DSC) subsequently sent a statement to the law firm representing Mr Leong, seeking payment of a total of S$21,000 for two summonses.

Prime Minister Lee’s defamation suit is set to go to trial. /TISG

Read related: Singapore Land Authority bashes Leong Sze Hian on land issue: “You seem to think that you are entitled to a different and special treatment”