In a Facebook post this evening (Jan 22), shared by his father Lee Hsien Yang, Mr Li Shengwu announced his refusal to continue to participate in the proceedings against him by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) for “scandalising the judiciary”.
Mr Li wrote: “I have an announcement to make regarding the Singapore state’s prosecution against me.”
He added that the AGC had prosecuted him for allegedly “scandalising the judiciary” in a private Facebook post. “This prosecution has continued for years, and during that time the AGC has submitted thousands of pages of legal documents over one paragraph on social media,” he wrote.
Mr Li also mentioned that the AGC had recently applied to strike out parts of his defence affidavit, with the result that they will not be considered at the trial. He wrote that the AGC “demanded that these parts be sealed in the court record, so that the public cannot know what the removed parts contain”.
“This is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader pattern of unusual conduct by the AGC. For instance, when arguing jurisdiction in the Court of Appeal, the AGC argued that a new piece of legislation should be retroactively applied against me. The court saw it as unfair for the new legislation to apply retrospectively,” he added.
Mr Li ended his post with this declaration: “In light of these events, I have decided that I will not continue to participate in the proceedings against me. I will not dignify the AGC’s conduct by my participation.”
Mr Li also announced that he had removed his cousin Li Hongyi from his Facebook friends list.
Mr Li is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Last year, he hired a top British lawyer to advise him in his contempt of court case. Queen’s Counsel David Pannick is one of the lawyers who won a landmark case this week against British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s suspension of Parliament before the deadline to exit the European Union.
/TISG
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