PM Lee's younger brother not returning to Singapore; police probe family-related will

Lee Hsien Yang, the younger brother of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and second son of founding Prime Minister the late Lee Kuan Yew, said on Tuesday that he may never return to Singapore amid an ongoing police investigation into him and his wife, Lee Suet Fern.

In a lengthy Facebook post, Lee also said his sister, Dr Lee Wei Ling, is now extremely unwell.

Both the brother and sister have strained relations with the 73-year-old prime minister over the demolition or preservation of their family house at Oxley Rise on premium land on the outskirt of Singapore's Central Business District.

"It pains me beyond words that I am unlikely ever to be able to see my sister face to face again," The Straits Times quoted from Lee's post.

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Dr Lee, 67, was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, she said in August 2020, describing it as a brain disease that slows physical movements and eventually leads to dementia with prominent behavioural changes.

Lee's latest comments come days after Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean told Parliament last Thursday that police have opened investigations into Lee and his wife for the possible offences of lying under oath.

The couple left Singapore after refusing to go for a police interview that they had initially agreed to attend, Teo said in a written reply.

Police later said they left Singapore after being engaged in June 2022, and have not returned since.

In 2020, the court of three judges and a disciplinary tribunal found that the couple had lied under oath during disciplinary proceedings against Mrs Lee, a lawyer, over her handling of the last will of Lee Kuan Yew, who died on March 23, 2015, at the age of 91.

Lee, 64, had been referred to a disciplinary tribunal by the Law Society over her role in the preparation and execution of the last will, which differed from his sixth and penultimate will in significant ways, and did not contain some changes he had wanted and discussed with his lawyer, Kwa Kim Li, days earlier.

Among the differences was a demolition clause – relating to the demolition of his 38 Oxley Road house after his death – which had not been in the sixth or penultimate will but was in the last.

This clause became a sticking point among the late Lee's children.

Lee’s role in the will had sparked a complaint by the Attorney-General’s Chambers to the Law Society about possible professional misconduct on her part.

After the disciplinary tribunal found her guilty of grossly improper professional conduct, it referred the case to the Court of Three Judges, the highest disciplinary body to deal with lawyers’ misconduct.

Lee was suspended by the Court of Three Judges from practising as a lawyer for 15 months, according to the Singapore daily.