A lawyer for Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday responded to blogger Roy Ngerng’s offer of S$5,000 in damages, following his false accusation against Lee, calling it “derisory” and completely disregarding the gravity of the blogger’s “calculated and systematic aggravation”.

Local television station Channel News Asia (CNA) reported that Ngerng had offered the damages for the earlier post on his blog ‘the Heart Truths’ (dated May 15), which accused Lee of misappropriating money paid by Singaporeans to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board.

Lee’s lawyer said Ngerng purported to apologise on May 23 for putting forth an allegation that the blogger admitted was “false and completely without foundation”.

The lawyer said this apology was “completely insincere”, as Ngerng had republished various posts thereafter, as well as a YouTube video, repeating the libel.

In addition, he emailed a link to the YouTube video he had reportedly taken down to a wide audience of local and international media, and had also sent out other links to various “offending posts”.

CNA reported that senior counsel Davinder Singh wrote in a letter to Ngerng’s lawyer: “It is clear that your client has always known that the allegation of criminal misappropriation against our client is false, but chose nonetheless to publish it in a sensational manner, so as to raise his public profile and gain support”.

Ngerng’s lawyer, M Ravi, was given a 5pm deadline yesterday to explain his client’s “outrageous conduct”.

- Bernama