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— Singapore's High Court ruled that an opposition party and two of its leaders must pay $416,000 in defamation damages to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
The court on Monday ordered the Singapore Democratic Party, General-Secretary Chee Soon Juan and his sister Chee Siok Chin to pay damages related to criticism published in 2006 in the party's newspaper.
The story, which questioned the government for its handling of a scandal at the National Kidney Foundation charity, was deemed libelous, according to court documents.
The ruling may bankrupt the Singapore Democratic Party and force it out of existence, the party said in a statement on its Web site.
"The Singapore Democrats stand firm in our conviction to continue to speak up for Singaporeans no matter what happens," the party said.
Chee Soon Juan was forced into bankruptcy in 2006 by a $300,000 ruling which found him guilty of defaming Lee Kuan Yew and former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.
Opposition leaders contend that defamation laws are applied selectively to silence criticism while the government says restrictions on speech and assembly are necessary to preserve the economic prosperity and racial stability of the multiethnic city-state of 4.8 million people.
Joshua B. Jeyaretnam, who became the country's first opposition politician elected to Parliament in 1981, was driven into bankruptcy in 2001 by defamation lawsuits brought by the two Lees and Goh, who was prime minister from when Lee Kuan Yew stepped down in 1990 until Lee Hsien Loong took over in 2004.
Jeyaretnam estimated he paid more than $925,000 in damages and court costs over the years. He emerged from bankruptcy this year before dying of heart failure earlier this month at age 82.
Singapore's leaders have also sued journalists several times in past years for alleged defamation. They have won lawsuits and damages against Bloomberg, The Economist and the International Herald Tribune.
