Terry Xu ordered to pay over $154k in legal costs

On Aug 26, 2025, Justice Audrey Lim granted default judgment in favour of Mr Shanmugam and Dr Tan.

Mr Xu was also absent from the subsequent hearing to assess the quantum of damages, held on Feb 26.

In a letter sent to the court that day, he stated categorically that he was not submitting to the jurisdiction of the Singapore courts for the assessment of damages or any other substantive stage of the proceedings.

In her written judgment issued on March 31, Justice Lim said Mr Xu’s failure to file a defence meant that the facts in the ministers’ statements of claim are taken to be admitted by him.

She set out the factors that pointed towards the award of higher damages.

Justice Lim said the TOC article’s allegations attacked the ministers’ character by portraying them as individuals who are part of an opaque system and who circumvented transparency requirements to avoid scrutiny of their conduct, and therefore suggesting that they had done something improper.

“As Cabinet ministers, these allegations disparage not only the claimants’ personal (reputation) but professional reputation as well,” she added.

Justice Lim said Mr Xu’s defamatory allegations were very grave as they directly impugned the claimants’ personal integrity, character and professional reputation.

The extent of publication and republication of the article was substantial, she noted. Besides being accessible on TOC’s website, the article was also published on TOC’s social media platforms.

Mr Xu also amplified the defamatory content by publishing four additional articles between Dec 23, 2024, and Jan 3, 2025, that referred to or contained links to the original article. Each of these subsequent articles was also promoted on TOC’s social media accounts.

The judge also found that Mr Xu had acted in malice. Mr Xu was put on notice to the falsehoods in the article by Dr Tan and Mr Shanmugam’s lawyers on Dec 19, 2024, and in an article on the Government’s fact-checking website Factually on Dec 23, 2024.

He responded by saying that the article was “based on factual and verifiable public records”, and maintained that its contents were true and entirely justified, the judge noted.

Mr Xu also breached an Aug 26, 2025, injunction order that restrained him from disseminating the defamatory allegations.

In their lawsuits, Mr Shanmugam and Dr Tan had each sought damages in excess of the awards made in two other defamation cases.

These are a 2021 case where then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong – who is now Senior Minister – was awarded $210,000 against Mr Xu for a TOC article on 38 Oxley Road; and a 2024 case where Mr Shanmugam was awarded $200,000 against Mr Lee Hsien Yang for defaming him over his rental of a state property in Ridout Road.

Justice Lim said the nature of the defamation in the present case was, in her view, graver than in the case involving Senior Minister Lee.

In that case, Mr Xu’s allegations impugned SM Lee’s reputation and character by alleging that he was dishonest, but the allegations related primarily to a family feud and not, say, to misconduct in his capacity as a public officer pertaining to public funds or to serious criminal conduct, she added.

The extent of publication and republication in the present case was highly substantial, said the judge – much larger than the case involving Mr Shanmugam and Mr Lee Hsien Yang, and comparable to the case involving SM Lee.