By Massita Ahmad
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SINGAPORE, Oct 7\u00a0(NNN-BERNAMA) — The first of the four days\u2019 trial of\u00a0Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s libel suit against blogger Leong Sze Hian began Tuesday with defence counsel grilling to find ground\u00a0on why Lee was\u00a0suing his client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lee, 68, as his capacity as a private citizen, had sued Leong over a post shared on his Facebook page in November 2018, which contained a link to an article by Malaysian news site The Coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the post had already been removed, Lee chose to go ahead to sue Leong on the \u201cremoval does not expunge the defamation\u201d basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe has not withdrawn. He has not apologised. He has not explained. He has not undertaken not to repeat. Meanwhile, the post has been seen, read, shared, republished, and the lies continue to circulate as a result of this post,\u201d said Lee to one of the questions by defence counsel, Lim Tean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lee was cross-examined by Lim before Justice Aedit Abdullah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lee who appeared calm throughout the proceedings said that the online article contained \u201cfalse and clearly libellous\u201d allegations linking him to the Malaysian 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) money-laundering scandal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The content of the article was taken from the States Times Review page, run by Alex Tan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To another question that Lee picked on the defendant from thousands of others not to protect his reputation but to frighten others, the prime minister who donned a grey suit said: \u201cI did not do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe defendant has been a thorn in our side in a small way for a very long time. He has tried his best to raise all kinds of issues criticising the Government, financial matters, governance matters, CPF matters, GIC matters even, regularly, on many occasions, in many forums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe has published newspaper letters, he has made speeches, he has published interminable blogs. He has made sure that his voice is heard, as he is entitled to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA legal case is not the way to answer that question, but when somebody defames me, whether he happens to be a critic or not, I have to think very carefully what the position is and take legal advice as to what I shall do, which is what happened in this case, regardless of whether he has published 400 or 1,000 articles or no articles, or even if he has previously been favourably disposed towards the Government. I have to think about what to do and what my legal options are and how I can clear my name,\u201d replied Lee at length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To a question that Lee has no courage to sue the States Times Review when Alex Tan had openly issued a challenge for Lee to sue him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is not a matter of courage. Alex Tan is not in jurisdiction, neither is The Coverage in jurisdiction,\u201d said Lee, adding that \u201cI don’t think the States Times Review has such a presence in Singapore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lim: The States Times Review is run by a person by the name of Alex Tan, who is a Singapore citizen. He may be based in Australia, but he is a Singapore citizen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lee: He is beyond the reach of Singapore law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court adjourned Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Massita Ahmad SINGAPORE, Oct 7\u00a0(NNN-BERNAMA) — The first of the four days\u2019 trial of\u00a0Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s libel suit against blogger Leong Sze Hian began Tuesday with defence counsel grilling to find ground\u00a0on why Lee was\u00a0suing his client. Lee, 68, as his capacity as a private citizen, had sued Leong over a post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":72399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215,288,318],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95672"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}