A blogger found guilty of defaming Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was made to pay S$29,000 (US$21,447) in legal costs yesterday, and he may have to pay over a quarter of a million dollars to finally settle the case.

Roy Ngerng was found to have defamed Lee in a blog post he had written in 2014. The decision was delivered in a summary court judgment in November last year.

Lee had demanded damages and costs, requiring Ngerng to pay S$29,000 to his lawyers' firm, Drew & Napier.

Ngerng failed to meet two deadlines that had been set, but paid Lee's lawyers yesterday after receiving the approval to do so from his own lawyer.

There will be a hearing later in June to decide on the amount of damages Ngerng will have to pay to Lee.

"The prime minister has filed for the defamation suit in the high court, which oversees cases of more than S$250,000, so this is the least that the prime minister wants me to pay to him," he wrote in a blog post.

Ngerng told dpa that he has no plans as yet to raise the money, and will wait for the hearing to take place first.

- dpa