AGC proceeding with contempt of court case against Li Shengwu: sources

(PHOTO: Reuters)
(PHOTO: Reuters)

The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) is moving ahead with contempt of court proceedings against academic Li Shengwu, said several sources familiar with the matter.

Yahoo News Singapore understands that a pre-trial conference for the case against Li, the eldest son of Lee Hsien Yang and nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, has been set for 13 November.

The case stems from a Facebook post in July this year made by Li. In the private post, the 32-year-old junior fellow at Harvard University had said that “the Singapore government is very litigious and has a pliant court system”.

In response to numerous media reports on his post, Li claimed in August that he had not attacked the Singapore judiciary. Instead, the post was intended to criticise the “litigious nature” of the Singapore government and its effect on media freedom, and not the judiciary, he said.

That same month, the AGC filed an application in the High Court to commence committal proceedings against Li for contempt of court over the post. In response, Li called the action “politically motivated”.

In his last update on the case in late August, Li said the AGC had conceded that he did not need to delete the Facebook post after he had amended it.

Yahoo News Singapore has reached out to AGC and Li for more information.