Lets Get Angry!

FEER applies to move suit to HK

Published Saturday, October 07, 2006 by Singapore Election |

Lawyers for the Far Eastern Economic Review magazine filed an application to the High Court on Friday, claiming a defamation writ served on their clients was flawed and should be thrown out.

According to court papers, lawyers from the firm Peter Low, Tang & Belinda Ang said the court should reject the Sept 4 writ served by the lawyers of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew as Singapore courts had no power to hear the case.

They added that writ papers were not served correctly to Review Publishing Company, the magazine's Hong Kong-based publisher.Legal action was sparked against the company and its editor Hugo Restall after the Review published an article about Singapore opposition figure Chee Soon Juan and his views on the National Kidney Foundation scandal.

Lawyers for the Review also claimed that Singapore courts had no power to hear the matter because the two leaders did not limit the claim for damages to Singapore, where the Review has about 1,000 subscribers, out of 20,000 worldwide.

The writ did not "confine the claim to publication within Singapore or to damage sustained in Singapore from publication wherever occurring …", they added.

The Review is also challenging the manner in which the writ was served to them, which they claimed breached a legal treaty that Singapore signed with China, of which Hong Kong is a part.

The Treaty on Judicial Assistance in Civil and Commercial Matters would have required the Lees' lawyers from Drew & Napier to serve the writ through a diplomatic channel, instead of getting a lawyer in Hong Kong to hand it to the company.

A court date will now be set for a hearing for both sides to argue these points.

On Friday, Mr Restall told a press conference in Hong Kong that his company will fight the lawsuit "vigorously".

- TODAY

1 Responses to “FEER applies to move suit to HK”

Anonymous on 1:07 AM SGT

Check out another very newsworthy article here at http://www.sgmlaw.com/PageFactory.aspx?PageID=252 .

This is the case of Lee sueing the Globe for interviewing with Devan Nair. Devan Nair coutersue. Lee not only lost, but was unable to have the countersue thrown out as well. This was in a Canadian court, and one of the very few times when Lee lost a court case regarding defamation against a magazine. Of course, this was never reported in Singapore.

Singapore Election Watch

FEER applies to move suit to HK

1 Responses to “FEER applies to move suit to HK”

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