Li Shengwu fined $15,000 for contempt of court

SINGAPORE - The High Court on Wednesday (July 29) fined Mr Li Shengwu, nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, $15,000 after finding him guilty of contempt by scandalising the court in a Facebook post he made in July 2017.

If Mr Li does not pay the fine, he will have to serve a default jail term of one week's jail.

Mr Li, who announced in January that he would no longer participate in the contempt proceedings, was absent from court.

Earlier this month, when the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) made arguments for him to be found guilty, the court was told that reminders for him to attend court had been sent to Harvard University, where Mr Li, 35, is an assistant professor of economics.

In his decision, Justice Kannan Ramesh found that Mr Li's post posed a real risk of undermining public confidence in the administration of justice.

He also rejected Mr Li's argument that the post was private as it was visible only to his Facebook friends.

This argument, said the judge, skirted the real issue of whether it was reasonably forseeable that the post would be re-published.

In his July 15, 2017, post, Mr Li wrote that the Singapore Government is "very litigious and has a pliant court system".

The post was related to the ongoing family dispute involving his father, Mr Lee Hsien Yang, his aunt, Ms Lee Wei Ling, and PM Lee over the Oxley Road home of their late father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founding Prime Minister.

Mr Li's post also included a link to a 2010 New York Times editorial which criticised his grandfather.

On Aug 4, 2017, the AGC started contempt proceedings against Mr Li, who then mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge against the process by which court papers were served on him in the United States.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.