Ms Sylvia Lim (Aljunied): Thank you, Speaker. I have one supplementary question for the Minister to aid understanding of what he said earlier.
I think the question was posed to him by Mr Leong about whether the Police had actually issued an order to Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Mrs Lee to attend the interview. And his answer was that, they were emailed and they said that they would cooperate. Do I read from that that actually, the Police had not gotten to the stage when an order under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) was actually issued to them?
Mr K Shanmugam: That is right, Sir. A specific order under the CPC was not issued. The Police normally would not issue such an order. They would first contact, then speak with, then send the written document. And if a party says that they will cooperate, the Police would assume in good faith that that is how they will proceed. That is what was done and the next thing the Police heard was another email from the couple saying that they will not cooperate. But by then, they were already – as I said – essentially absconded from jurisdiction.
Ministry of Home Affairs
20 March 2023
https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/#/sprs3topic?reportid=oral-answer-3146
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 