SINGAPORE - Ministers K. Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan said they will sue Mr Lee Hsien Yang for defamation if he does not apologise for having made false allegations.
Mr Shanmugam, who is Law and Home Affairs Minister, said in a Facebook post on Thursday evening that he and Dr Balakrishnan had sent lawyers’ letters to Mr Lee on Thursday.
“Lee Hsien Yang has accused us of acting corruptly and for personal gain by having Singapore Land Authority (SLA) give us preferential treatment by illegally felling trees without approval, and also having SLA pay for renovations to 26 and 31 Ridout Road. These allegations are false,” said Mr Shanmugam.
He said they have asked Mr Lee to apologise, withdraw his allegations and pay damages, which will be donated to charity.
“If he does not do so, we will sue him,” he said.
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On Tuesday, Mr Lee, the younger son of Singapore’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and the brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, was asked to carry a correction notice on a Facebook post he made on Sunday that commented on the Ridout Road saga.
He was issued the correction direction under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act, Singapore’s fake news law.
The direction to do so was issued by Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong. A press release from the Law Ministry said on Tuesday that Mr Lee’s Facebook post on Sunday had made three untrue statements.
These included that the state had paid for the renovations to No. 26 and 31 Ridout Road because the properties were leased by Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, and that trees at the two properties were allowed to be felled because the properties were leased by the two ministers. The third statement was about SPH Media Trust.
Mr Lee put up the correction notice on Tuesday night, but made a new post that called the Pofma notice misleading and that he stood by what he had said.
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.