SINGAPORE - The question of who prepared the last will of Mr Lee Kuan Yew took a new turn late on Friday night (June 16) when lawyer Kwa Kim Li denied that she had a role in it.

Ms Kwa, the managing partner of the Lee&Lee law firm, had prepared the previous six versions of the will of the late Mr Lee who died on March 23, 2015, at the age of 91.

When contacted on Friday night, Ms Kwa, who is currently overseas, told The Straits Times: "I did not prepare the last will."

She declined to comment further.

Her statement contradicts an earlier one made by Mr Lee Hsien Yang, who is her cousin and the younger son of the late Mr Lee.

Mr Lee Hsien Yang made three posts on Facebook throughout the course of Friday in which he responded to a statement issued the night before by his elder brother, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, on the dispute between the siblings over their father's house at 38 Oxley Road.

In the statement issued on Thursday night through his lawyers, PM Lee said that the late Mr Lee's final will was made in "very troubling circumstances".



Lawyer Kwa Kim Li, the niece of Mr Lee Kuan Yew's wife Kwa Geok Choo. PHOTO: NUHS.EDU.SG



PM Lee raised the question of whether there was a conflict of interest when Mrs Lee Suet Fern - Mr Lee Hsien Yang's wife - helped prepare the final will since her husband stood to gain from the removal of his sister Lee Wei Ling's extra share of the estate in the will.

But Mr Lee Hsien Yang said in a Facebook post that his wife's firm, Stamford Law Corporation - now known as Morgan Lewis Stamford LLC - did not draft any of the late Mr Lee's wills.

"The will was drafted by Kwa Kim Li of Lee&Lee," he said, referring to the sequence of events surrounding the final will.

He added that the will's seventh paragraph, in which the late Mr Lee stated that he wanted his house to be demolished after his death, "was drafted at LKY's (Lee Kuan Yew's) direction".

It was "put into language by Lee Suet Fern, his daughter-in-law, and when he was satisfied, he asked Kim Li to insert it into his will", said Mr Lee Hsien Yang.

He did not explain how this clause - drafted earlier for previous versions of the will but subsequently deleted - came to be reinstated in the final will.