Singapore court fines Lee Hsien Yang’s son US$10,000 over contempt of court charge

Li Shengwu said in a private Facebook post in 2017 that the Singapore government is ‘very litigious and has a pliant court system’

Li, the nephew of Singapore’s PM Lee Hsien Loong, will have to serve a week’s jail in default if he doesn’t pay the fine in two weeks

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Li Shengwu is an assistant economics professor at Harvard University. File photo: Reuters

Published: 12:33pm, 29 Jul 2020Updated: 7:40pm, 29 Jul 2020

The nephew of Singapore’s current prime minister was convicted on Wednesday of contempt of court over a Facebook post criticising the judiciary during a bitter family feud.

Li Shengwu, an academic at Harvard University, was also fined S$15,000 (US$10,880) by the High Court over the 2017 post in which he described the Singapore government as “very litigious and has a pliant court system”.

He will have to serve a week’s jail if he does not pay the amount in two weeks, Justice Kannan Ramesh said in the judgement, although Li is currently living in the United States.

Li is the eldest son of business executive Lee Hsien Yang, who has been at loggerheads with his brother, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, over their father’s legacy.

Li made the Facebook post as the Lee family feud raged publicly following the death of the Lee patriarch and Singapore’s first leader, Lee Kuan Yew, in 2015.

The spat pitted his father and aunt against his prime minister uncle.