Roy Ngerng to pay damages for defamation to PM Lee over 17 years

The lawyers of blogger, Roy Ngerng and Singapore Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong reached a settlement in relation to the terms of payment of the judgement sum at a hearing on Monday (14 March) to assess the damages.

Ngerng was accused of writing a blogpost in May 2014 allegedly comparing the Government’s usage of CPF monies to the City Harvest Church leaders’ alleged misuse of church funds.

On 17 December last year, the Supreme Court ordered Ngerng to pay S$150,000 in damages to Mr Lee for defamation. This comprises S$100,000 in general damages and S$50,000 in aggravated damages.

Ngerng, blogger at thehearttruths.com will pay S$100 a month for five years, and S$1,000 a month subsequently in damages awarded to Mr Lee for defamation until the full sum of S$150,000 is paid.

Ngerng was also ordered by the court in Dec 2015, to no longer publish any assertions that Mr Lee was misappropriating CPF monies.

In his email reply to TodayOnline, Mr Thuraisingam, who is acting on a pro bono basis for Ngerng said that no interest would need to be paid if Mr Ngerng makes each payment on time, said . “In the event that he breaches the terms of the agreement (i.e fails to make any one of the payments), the full amount outstanding plus Court Judgment interest will be immediately payable,”