Li Shengwu, nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, will have to avail himself for cross-examination, the High Court ordered on Monday, Feb. 3.

The order was made after hearing several applications by the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) and the defendant's lawyers.

This means that Li has 14 days to answer questions related to allegations of contempt of court, which were posed to him by the AGC.

Li's applications to set aside the questions and for discovery of certain documents on the case from the AGC was dismissed.

Li's father is Lee Hsien Yang, PM Lee's younger brother.

What happened prior to this development?

The AGC asked Li previously to answer several questions under oath.

These questions include whether members of the media were his Facebook friends.

The AGC also applied for Li to produce certain documents that he referred to in his defence affidavit filed on Sept. 24, 2019.

Li responded by refusing to answer the questions.

He also applied to have the questions set aside, and for discovery to obtain certain documents from the AGC.

Li declared he will not continue with proceedings

Li had declared in a Jan. 22 Facebook post that he would not continue to participate in the proceedings against him.

He had cited "unusual conduct" and "false and spurious" allegations by the AGC as reasons for this refusal to continue.

What AGC has done

The AGC statement on Monday noted that written submissions for the applications were to have been filed on Oct. 10, 2019, and Jan. 28, 2020.

The AGC also filed another application for the court to declare that Li and his lawyers had abused the court process.

This was after Li's defence affidavit was released to the media on or about Sept. 29 last year, before it was admitted into evidence or referred to in any court hearing -- a breach of paragraph 29A(3) of the Supreme Court Practice Directions, which prohibits such disclosure.

The AGC had successfully applied for parts of the affidavit to be struck out.

Li complained in his post about this and said the AGC had also demanded that these parts of the affidavit be sealed in the court record, so the public cannot know what the parts contain.

The AGC responded by describing the parts as having "contained scandalous and irrelevant material".

It also revealed that Li and his lawyers have since filed affidavits apologising for the breach.

The AGC also added that Li's lawyers had discharged themselves on Monday.

Background

In a July 2017 Facebook post, Li wrote that the Singapore government is "very litigious and has a pliant court system".

He was subsequently served court papers in the United States over the post.

Li can be arrested if he returns to Singapore, or he can be acquitted on the arguments and evidence without ever showing up in court.

Top photo via Li Shengwu’s Facebook page