The estranged brother of former Singaporean prime minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) said he has been given political asylum by the British government on grounds of a “well-founded fear” of persecution.
Lee Hsien Yang (李顯揚), 67, in a Facebook post said he had become a “political refugee,” as he and his late sister “feared the abuse of the organs of the Singapore state against us” after a very public feud over the fate of a home that belonged to their father and the country’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀).
Lee Hsien Yang said he applied for asylum back in 2022.
Photo: Reuters
The UK approved the former Singapore Telecommunications CEO’s asylum request in August, and he is permitted to remain in the country for five years, according to a letter from the British Home Office shared by Lee Hsien Yang.
He has lived in self-imposed exile in Europe since June 2022 following a police investigation of him and his wife over their handling of the last will of his father.
The revelation over Lee Hsien Yang’s asylum is the latest twist in a bitter family feud that centers on a years-long disagreement over whether to demolish the family home. The dispute resurfaced this month after the death of his sister Lee Wei Ling (李瑋玲) who was living at the colonial-era house at 38 Oxley Rd near Singapore’s glitzy shopping district.
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