My wife was never Lee Kuan Yew's lawyer: Hsien Yang
Lee Suet Fern was never Lee Kuan Yew’s lawyer, and the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) assertion that she refused to respond to the agency’s questions is “untrue”, said Lee Hsien Yang of his wife.
In a Facebook post on Monday evening (7 January), the youngest child of the late Lee was responding to a statement from AGC on the same day that said it had referred his wife to the Law Society over a case of possible “professional misconduct”.
The AGC added that it had asked Suet Fern to explain her role, if any, in the preparation of Lee Kuan Yew’s last will. However, she had yet to respond to these questions “despite asking for extensions of time”, it added.
Noting that Lee Kuan Yew’s first will in 1995 was drafted by his mother Kwa Geok Choo, Hsien Yang stressed that the law firm Lee & Lee – founded by his parents and uncle Lee Kim Yew – had always been his father’s lawyers “for all his wills since his first will”.
“No one has complained from the outset on the process and circumstances of our father’s signing his final will – not Lee Kuan Yew, not his estate which stands in his shoes after his death, not any of the beneficiaries, including Lee Hsien Loong, who was advised by Lucien Wong, now AG,” said Hsien Yang.
He added, “What public interest is being served by AGC here? Why waste public resources on a private matter, and after all this time? Why is AGC rushing this case in 2019 when the facts were known by all parties for years?”
The long-running Lee family saga
The AGC’s statement followed a Facebook post by Lee Kuan Yew’s daughter Wei Ling on Sunday evening, in which she revealed that the AGC had lodged “more than 500 pages of complaint” against Suet Fern over her alleged role in the drafting of the will.
Hsien Yang has maintained that his father’s final will was drafted by lawyer Kwa Kim Li – which the latter has denied – and that Stamford Law Corporation, his wife’s law firm at the time, did not draft any of his father’s wills.
Instead, Suet Fern merely facilitated the witnessing and signing of the final will, according to Hsien Yang.
“Paragraph 7 (the demolition clause) of the Will was drafted at LKY’s direction, and put into language by Lee Suet Fern his daughter-in-law and when he was satisfied he asked Kim Li to insert it into his will,” said Hsien Yang in a Facebook post from June 2016.
These are the latest developments in the long-running Lee saga, which first erupted on 14 June 2017 when Wei Ling and Hsien Yang issued a joint statement of “no confidence” against their elder brother and Singapore’s prime minister, Hsien Loong.
They claimed to have been threatened amid his pursuit of a personal agenda over their former family home at 38 Oxley Road and accused the their brother of plotting to keep the house in order to build a political dynasty.
Related stories:
Wei Ling slams AGC’s complaint to Law Society about preparation of Lee Kuan Yew’s will
Lee Kuan Yew never ‘accepted’ Ministerial Committee’s options for Oxley Road home: Hsien Yang
Lee Hsien Yang refutes PM’s claim of role wife played in Lee Kuan Yew’s last will
An ‘insult’ to suggest Lee Kuan Yew did not understand his own will: Hsien Yang
Lee Hsien Yang, Lee Wei Ling say they have ‘no confidence’ in Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong
Ministerial panel reveals 3 broad options for 38 Oxley Road house
PM Lee in Parliament: Allegations of abuse of power by my siblings are ‘entirely baseless’
Li Shengwu’s appeal against a court order to serve him papers in the US to be heard
