Singapore, May 18: The passport of Lee Hsien Yang, the younger brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, remains valid and was never seized by Singapore’s immigration authority though he left the country without attending a police interview, officials have said.
The second son of Singapore’s founder prime minister, the late Lee Kuan Yew, was reported as having applied to give evidence by a video link in a tribunal case related to his father’s will. But the media quoted him as saying that his “passport was currently being held by immigration authorities in connection with an immigration issue and that he was unlikely to get it back in time for the hearing”.
Lee Hsien Yang and his wife Lee Suet Fern left Singapore after declining to attend a police interview in July 2022 relating to lying in judicial proceedings about the late Lee’s will that mainly relates to the dispute over preservation of the family house, built in 1898 on the outskirts of Singapore’s now main thoroughfare of Orchard Road.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) responded to media queries related to reports of Lee Hsien Yang saying his passport was held by the ICA.
“His passport remains valid today and was never in ICA’s possession during and following Mdm Kwa Kim Li’s disciplinary tribunal hearing,” Channel News Asia quoted an ICA statement issued on Wednesday.
The tribunal found that Kwa had failed to safeguard Lee Kuan Yew’s confidentiality while handling his will and that she had misled his children, Lee Hsien Yang and daughter Lee Wei Ling, in e-mail responses to their queries.
Kwa was ordered to pay a penalty of SGD 13,000 and pay costs and disbursements to Lee Hsien Yang and The Law Society of Singapore.
During a video hearing for this application, Lee Hsien Yang submitted that he was unable to travel due to matters beyond his control and that there were “appropriate administrative arrangements and technical facilities available for him to give evidence by a video link”.
The report did not state when the application was made or when its subsequent hearing took place.
According to the tribunal, Lee Hsien Yang argued that he would face “unfair prejudice” if the application was not granted.
The report further noted: “Despite repeated requests by the disciplinary tribunal, counsel for (Lee Hsien Yang) declined to state the purpose for which the passport had been handed over or even when (Lee Hsien Yang) had handed over the passport.
“This latter question was critical as it touched the question of whether (Lee Hsien Yang’s) inability to travel was a matter beyond his control or occasioned by his own actions.”
Kwa’s lawyer argued that his client would be prejudiced by the inability to cross-examine Lee Hsien Yang in person.
After consideration, the tribunal allowed the application for Lee Hsien Yang to give evidence via a video link, even though it said it was “disturbed” by his “refusal to give reasons why and the circumstances under which he did not have possession of his passport”.
The tribunal felt Kwa would not be prejudiced by having to conduct the cross-examination via a video link.
Lee’s house at Oxley Road has split the late Lee Kuan Yew family. A parliamentary committee, from which Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has recused, wants the property preserved given its historical value.
But the younger brother and sister of Prime Minister Lee wants it demolished in accordance with their parents’ wishes.
According to past reports, Lee Kuan Yew had told his Cabinet to demolish the property after he died, as properties within the vicinity cannot be built high. The house sits on a prime site within land-short Singapore.
Lee died in March 2015 at the age of 91. (PTI)
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