Blogger fined 150,000 for defaming Singapore PM

Singapore's blogger Roy Ngerng was ordered to pay 150,000 Singapore dollars (106,383 U.S. dollars) in damages to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for defamation, the country's Supreme Court gave the judgement on Thursday.

The penalty comprises 100,000 Singapore dollars in general damages and 50,000 Singapore dollars in aggravated damages.

Ngerng, 34, defamed Lee in a blog post on his blog The Heart Truths on May 15 last year by suggesting the prime minister misappropriated Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings.

He also compared Lee to the City Harvest Church leaders who misused more than 35 million U.S. dollars of church funds to turn the pastor's wife into a global pop star.

Ngerng was then asked to stop publishing any similar assertions. However, he later wrote in a blogpost that although the injunction was in place, he would continue to speak up for CPF and other issues.

The blogger has also been fined a total of 1,900 Singapore dollars earlier this year for organizing a rally without approval under the Reform Party during the 2015 general election.

"As is apparent from recent events in this region, an accusation that one has criminally misappropriated monies paid by citizens to a state-administered pension fund is one of the gravest that can be made against any individual, let alone a head of government," the Strait Times quoted Justice Lee Seiu Kin.

"Such accusations, striking at the heart of one's personal integrity, can severely undermine the credibility of the target." Enditem