Lee Hsien Yang’s son Li Shengwu is no longer Facebook friends with his cousin, the son of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Li Hongyi.

Making the announcement via a Facebook post on Jan. 22, the 35-year-old Assistant Professor of Economics at Harvard University also said that he will no longer be participating in the legal proceedings brought against him by the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC)

Prosecuted for 2017 Facebook post

Li is currently being prosecuted by the AGC for allegedly scandalising the judiciary with a private Facebook post.

In his July 2017 post, Li expressed his opinions of the Singapore judicial system, which he asserted has an impact on international media reporting.

The private post was not publicly accessible but one of his Facebook friends took a screen shot of it. This screen shot was later shared on social media by other groups.

"This prosecution has continued for years, and during that time the AGC has submitted thousands of pages of legal documents over one paragraph on social media," wrote Li.

Alleged "unusual conduct" by AGC

Li also shared more recent updates to the proceedings in his post, highlighting some allegedly "unusual conduct" by the AGC.

According to him, the AGC applied to strike out parts of his defence affidavit so that they will not be considered during the trial.

Li claimed that AGC wants these portions sealed in the court record "so that the public cannot know what the removed parts contain".

Separately, Li also pointed to the example of AGC attempting to apply the Administration of Justice (Protection) Act -- which only took effect in October 2017 -- retroactively against him as proof of said unusual conduct.

It was rejected by the court.

He ended his post by saying that he will not continue to participate in the proceedings against him, in light of these events.

"I will not dignify the AGC’s conduct by my participation," he wrote.

Top images via Li Shengwu and Overseas Singaporean Unit/YouTube. 

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