Singapore’s Lee family feud: Lee Hsien Yang and wife Lee Suet Fern face perjury probe
- The two are being investigated for giving false evidence in judicial proceedings over Singapore’s late independence leader Lee Kuan Yew
- They initially agreed to a police interview ‘but later had a change of heart and refused to attend’, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean said
Responding to a lawmaker’s query, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean said in a written statement that the husband-wife pair had initially agreed to a police interview “but later had a change of heart and refused to attend”.
Though the couple was asked to reconsider their decision to participate in investigations, they had since left and remained out of Singapore, he said. Police would take “necessary steps” to complete their investigations in the couple’s absence, Teo said.
The police investigation is linked to a case before the country’s Court of Three Judges – Singapore apex judicial body for misconduct by lawyers – in 2020.
The court at the time handed Lee Suet Fern a 15-month suspension of her licence to practise law, upholding a disciplinary panel’s finding that she had acted improperly when handling Lee Kuan Yew’s will.
The Court of Three Judges, in their ruling, noted that the couple had lied under oath. Teo said the police commenced investigations into them for potential offences of giving false evidence in judicial proceedings.
“Their refusal to participate raises questions. If they maintain their innocence, the investigation will give them the chance to vindicate themselves,” he said. “They should participate, take the full opportunity to give their side of the story, and clear their names.”
Teo was the chair of a ministerial committee set up to deal with the central part of the siblings’ dispute: the future of a 19th-century bungalow that Lee Kuan Yew called home from the 1940s until his death at age 91 in 2015.
Lee Suet Fern suspended over misconduct in handling Lee Kuan Yew’s will
The ruling party MP who had posed a question to Teo over the saga had asked about a book chronicling its twists and turns by local journalist Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh.
Teo said the book “totally ignores the facts and findings which had been established, after an objective and thorough examination of the case”.
The assertions in the book, The Battle Over Lee Kuan Yew’s Last Will, were “calculated to mislead” and go against the findings of the authorities, said Teo, one of Prime Minister Lee’s senior lieutenants.
The messy saga became a conversation-starter in the compact island nation when Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling shared a lengthy post on Facebook accusing their brother the prime minister of abusing his executive powers to preserve the family bungalow – which they say Lee Kuan Yew wanted demolished.
Lee Kuan Yew had previously said in public that he detested the way the homes of national figures such as India’s founding prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru were left in “shambles” after they were converted into tourist attractions.
Prime Minister Lee later went before parliament to dispel the allegations and offer assurances that he had recused himself from the government’s decision-making process on the issue. He also said the government had no plans to alter the status quo – of keeping the bungalow intact – in the near term.
Officials tasked with looking into the matter in 2018 said outright demolition, a complete preservation of the home as a national monument, and a partial preservation of the basement dining room were the three options a future government could consider when the time came to decide the fate of the property.
The basement of the home is regarded as the birthplace of the People’s Action Party which was co-founded by Lee Kuan Yew and which has ruled Singapore uninterrupted since 1959.
