Before Singaporeans could even finish preparing their lunches, the Li Shengwu saga continues to deliver new information to their news feed.

In an interview with Reuters, Li the nephew of PM Lee Hsien Loong, who is facing legal proceedings after he made comments suggesting that Singapore's courts were not independent, revealed that he would not be returning to Singapore but would seek to defend himself through legal representation.

 "I have no intention of going back to Singapore. I have a happy life and a fulfilling job in the U.S."

In an email response to Yahoo News Singapore's queries,  Li has described the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) move to begin contempt of court proceedings against him as “politically motivated prosecution”.

 “The AGC’s letter directly mentions Singapore’s recent political crisis as justification for their action. I thought Singapore was better than this.”

“I will not buy a quiet life at the price of my integrity.

Li is a junior fellow at Harvard University and expects to commence an assistant professor position in the later part of  2018.

The 32-year old has since not made further comments but has shared another article from the New York Times about the developing saga:

AGC's response

In response to Li's latest post, A spokesman from the AGC told The Straits Times that it received the document after the extended deadline of 5pm on Aug 4.

The AGC notes that the document does not purport to comply with our letter of demand that Mr Li purge his contempt and apologise, but will nonetheless place the document before the Court.

It added that as the matter is now before the court, it will not be commenting further.

The story so far

If you haven't been keeping up with the posts because you were sleeping in on a Saturday morning, here's a quick recap.

Li's Facebook post that he shared with a privacy setting of "friends only" on Jul 15 has come under scrutiny for contempt of court due to the nature of the caption he wrote.

On the evening of Aug 4, the AGC filed an application in the High Court for leave to commence committal proceedings against Li for contempt of court, in relation to said Facebook post on July 15.

However, Li claimed that his private post was taken out of context, which he clarified with a separate Facebook post and a letter to AGC which he made public earlier today (Aug 5).

Whatever the outcome may be, it seems highly likely that this saga will not end any time soon.

Top photo via Prime Minister’s Office YouTube

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