Lee Kuan Yew’s son claims Singapore authorities ‘weaponised’ laws against critics

Lee Hsien Yang, who has been granted political refugee status in the UK, said that Singaporean authorities have “weaponised” the country’s laws against critics and that he is just the most prominent example of a growing number of Singaporeans fleeing abroad to seek protection from their own government.

“Singapore has this veneer that purports to be a sort of affluent, democratic, free country. The veneer is quite thin,” he said in an interview in London on Monday. “Beneath that there is a repressive nature to that regime and there are people fleeing from it.”

The Singapore government reacted strongly on Thursday, accusing Lee of turning a “personal vendetta into an international smear campaign against his father, his family and his country.”

It said Lee had alleged in his asylum application that he and his family were being persecuted by the Singapore government to prevent his son, Li Shengwu, from becoming prime minister.