Li Shengwu, the nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said on Monday (Jul 11) that he has reservations about returning to Singapore.
Mr Li wrote that it had been 5 years since he left Singapore “because of a political prosecution by the Singapore government. Friends often ask me if it’s safe to return”.
The assistant professor of economics at Harvard University, living in the United States added: “The court case is technically over. However, I assess that there’s a substantial risk that my uncle, the Prime Minister, would find an excuse to imprison me were I to return to Singapore. He likes to relitigate old disputes.
My uncle has a habit of suing his critics in Singapore courts”.
He explained that he now stayed in Cambridge, Massachusetts and had a green card.
“It’s gutting to be unable to return home, and to watch from afar as Singapore slides steadily further into authoritarianism”, he wrote.
The grandson of Lee Kuan Yew and son of Lee Hsien Yang was found guilty over a private Facebook post he made in 2017, where he shared a link to a New York Times editorial titled Censored In Singapore, with a description saying: “Keep in mind, of course, that the Singapore government is very litigious and has a pliant court system.”
He was ordered to pay the fine of S$15,000 within two weeks, or serve a week’s jail in default.
He was also ordered to pay about S$16,000 for costs and disbursements.
In Aug 2020, Mr Li announced that he will pay a S$15,000 fine for contempt of court, but said he does “not admit guilt”.
He wrote a day before the deadline to make payment that he had decided to pay the fine “in order to buy some peace and quiet”.
“Paying the fine avoids giving the Singapore Government an easy excuse to attack me and my family,” he wrote.
However, he added: “I do not admit guilt. I have never denied writing what I wrote, to my friends in a private Facebook post.” /TISG
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