Singapore PM’s estranged brother under investigation

Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean said in a document sent to the parliament made public Thursday that Lee Hsien Yang and his wife, Lee Suet Fern, were being investigated over allegations of lying under oath by a panel of three judges and a disciplinary tribunal regarding the will, AP reported.

“The police have advised them to reconsider participating in investigations, but they have since left Singapore and remain out of the country,” Teo Chee Hean wrote, AP reported.

Lee Hsien Yang and his prime minister brother have long been at odds over the will of their father Lee Kuan Yew, who ushered Singapore through independence from Britain.

Following his death in 2015, the siblings clashed over a clause in his will indicating a family bungalow where Lee Kuan Yew lived for most of his 91 years should be demolished rather than become some kind of tourist attraction.

Lee Hsien Yang and his sister Lee Wei Ling have accused their brother Lee Hsien Loong of instead preserving the house to “enhance his political capital” as a “visible symbol” of their father, AP reported.

Yang, a former chief executive of Singtel who has lived in self-imposed exile in Europe for months with his wife, told AP on Friday that the new investigation was “a further attempt to discredit and attack me,” and “it is not safe for me to return” to Singapore.

In a post on Facebook, he said: “The persecution of my family by the Singapore Authorities continues unabated.”

The Singapore government has said the police investigation was an opportunity for Lee Hsien Yang and his wife to vindicate themselves and their refusal to participate raises questions, Bloomberg reported.