<p>Singapore: The younger brother of Singapore's former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong paid more than SGD 600,000 ($466,000) in damages to two Indian-origin ministers for making defamatory allegations against them on a social media site.</p>.<p>Lee Hsien Yang made the payment to Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan after the city-state's High Court in May ordered him to pay SGD 200,000 each to them. On top of the damages, he was required to pay costs of SGD 51,000 to each minister.</p>.<p>The defamation case stems from Yang's allegations relating to Shanmugam and Balakrishnan renting two state-owned bungalows at Ridout Road in the posh conclave of the city-state.</p>.Singapore convicts Indian-origin ex-minister of lesser amended charges.<p>In a Facebook post on Sunday, Yang, the younger son of Singapore’s first Prime Minister, the late Lee Kuan Yew, said he paid the ministers a total of SGD 619,335.</p>.<p>"I have paid Ministers Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan a total of SGD 619,335.53 This amount is equivalent to 13.6 months rental for the two Ridout houses," he said in a post on Facebook.</p>.<p>In response, the ministers reiterated they would donate the damages to charity, Channel News Asia reported on Tuesday.</p>.<p>Yang made the defamatory comments in a Facebook post in July 2023, suggesting that Shanmugam and Balakrishnan had acted corruptly by having the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) give them preferential treatment in the rental of the colonial-built black-and-white bungalows at Ridout Road.</p>.<p>Justice Goh Yihan said in his judgment that Yang had "acted with malice" in posting the offending words, justifying not only higher damages but also aggravated damages.</p>.<p>He added Yang's post came after the anti-graft agency found the ministers did not receive any preferential treatment over the Ridout Road properties. </p>
<p>Singapore: The younger brother of Singapore's former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong paid more than SGD 600,000 ($466,000) in damages to two Indian-origin ministers for making defamatory allegations against them on a social media site.</p>.<p>Lee Hsien Yang made the payment to Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan after the city-state's High Court in May ordered him to pay SGD 200,000 each to them. On top of the damages, he was required to pay costs of SGD 51,000 to each minister.</p>.<p>The defamation case stems from Yang's allegations relating to Shanmugam and Balakrishnan renting two state-owned bungalows at Ridout Road in the posh conclave of the city-state.</p>.Singapore convicts Indian-origin ex-minister of lesser amended charges.<p>In a Facebook post on Sunday, Yang, the younger son of Singapore’s first Prime Minister, the late Lee Kuan Yew, said he paid the ministers a total of SGD 619,335.</p>.<p>"I have paid Ministers Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan a total of SGD 619,335.53 This amount is equivalent to 13.6 months rental for the two Ridout houses," he said in a post on Facebook.</p>.<p>In response, the ministers reiterated they would donate the damages to charity, Channel News Asia reported on Tuesday.</p>.<p>Yang made the defamatory comments in a Facebook post in July 2023, suggesting that Shanmugam and Balakrishnan had acted corruptly by having the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) give them preferential treatment in the rental of the colonial-built black-and-white bungalows at Ridout Road.</p>.<p>Justice Goh Yihan said in his judgment that Yang had "acted with malice" in posting the offending words, justifying not only higher damages but also aggravated damages.</p>.<p>He added Yang's post came after the anti-graft agency found the ministers did not receive any preferential treatment over the Ridout Road properties. </p>