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Singapore's blogger to testify in hearing to assess damages for defaming PM Lee

Xinhua, July 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

Blogger Roy Ngerng is expected to take the stand again on Friday in the final day of a three-day hearing to assess the damages he has to pay to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, after he was found to have defamed Lee.

The first two days of the trial were a fiery exchange of words as the blogger cross-examined the prime minister, before Lee's lawyer Davinder Singh did the same with the blogger, local TV Channel NewsAsia reported on Friday.

Ngerng has maintained that he did not intend to defame Lee, and that he was "scared and angry" after receiving a letter of demand from Lee's lawyers, threatening to sue. He also said he felt aggrieved by Lee's actions to sue an "ordinary citizen," the local media reported.

However, Singh countered that the blogger's decision not to remove the offending content, and instead sent two emails to local and international journalists with information on the location of the two blogposts he had been asked to take down and privatized a related YouTube video instead of removing it entirely, aggravated the defamation.

Although Ngerng said that he had apologized several times and had accepted the judgment with the knowledge that clarifying the facts of the case does not negate the defamatory effect his blogpost had, Lee said that the apology was "not sincere" and that "your conduct shows that you have no intention of closing the matter properly."

An earlier out-of-court settlement of 10,000 Singapore dollars (7,462 U.S. dollars) from Ngerng was rejected by PM Lee as " derisory," due to his conduct in publishing a series of posts after the defamatory post, claiming he was being persecuted by Lee and the Singapore judiciary.

Ngerng, a former healthcare program coordinator at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, had written a blogpost last May allegedly comparing the government's usage of CPF (Central Provident Fund) monies to the City Harvest Church leaders' alleged misuse of church funds. In his blog, he charged that the government did so via the government's investment arms, Temasek Holdings and GIC.

Ngerng maintained that his post did not pin the blame on Lee, but on the government as a whole. However, Singh said that replicating a Channel NewsAsia chart on the City Harvest Church trial, and replacing founder Kong Hee's photo with that of PM Lee, was evidence of his intent.

The blogger was ordered by the court to no longer publish any assertions that Lee was misappropriating CPF monies. He was also ordered to pay Lee 29,000 Singapore dollars (21,640 U.S. dollars) for legal fees and related expenses that were borne leading up to the application for the summary judgment.

The blogger later wrote in a blogpost that although the injunction was in place, he would continue to speak up for CPF and other issues.

His application for a Queen's Counsel (QC) to take on his case was also rejected by the High Court on June 11, after Justice Steven Chong said that the appointed QC had no expertise in Singapore-specific defamation issues. Ngerng was ordered to pay costs of 6,000 Singapore dollars (4,477 U.S. dollars) for the dismissed application. Endi