KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian court will hand down its verdict in Najib Razak's first corruption trial on Tuesday (Jul 28), nearly 16 months after it began probing the former prime minister's role in the multi-billion-dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.
Najib and his inner circle are accused of plundering the sovereign wealth fund in a mind-boggling fraud that stretched around the world.
Stolen cash was allegedly used to bankroll Hollywood hit The Wolf Of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and US investment titan Goldman Sachs also became embroiled in the scandal.
Anger at the looting played a large part in the shock loss by Najib's coalition in elections two years ago after six decades in power.
Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak, seen here in September 2018, is facing four charges of corruption and three of money-laundering in the case. (Photo: AFP/Mohd Rasfan)
The ex-leader, who is facing four charges of corruption and three of money-laundering in the case, insists he was ignorant of the bank transfers.
His defence team has portrayed Najib as a victim and instead sought to paint financier Low Taek Jho, a key figure in the scandal who has been charged in the US and Malaysia, as the mastermind.
Low, whose whereabouts are unknown, maintains his innocence.
POLITICAL TURBULENCE
Prosecutors insist Najib was in control of the 1MDB unit and that they have a solid case, but observers believe recent political upheaval could affect the outcome of the trial, which began in April last year.
Najib's scandal-mired party returned to power in March as part of a coalition after a reformist administration collapsed.
Since then, 1MDB-linked charges were unexpectedly dropped against the ex-leader's stepson Riza Aziz, one of the Wolf Of Wall Street producers, in exchange for him agreeing to return assets to Malaysia.
Prosecutors also dropped dozens of charges against Najib ally Musa Aman, the former leader of Sabah state.
If Najib - currently free on bail - is convicted on Tuesday, he could be sentenced the same day.
Each charge of corruption carries a maximum jail term of 20 years, and each money-laundering count is punishable by a term of up to 15 years.
Low Taek Jho is a key figure in the scandal who has been charged in the US and Malaysia. This file photo shows a boat owned by Low. (Photo: AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka)
But the 67-year-old is likely to appeal, and may not be jailed straight away.
If he is found guilty and the conviction is upheld, then he would also be barred from political office for several years.
Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia expert from the University of Nottingham, said a conviction would be viewed positively by many for bringing "some accountability on the scandal of 1MDB".
By contrast, an acquittal "will do serious damage to Malaysia's international reputation", she added.
Authorities in several countries are investigating the 1MDB theft, which funded a global spending spree that included the purchase of high-end real estate, artworks and a superyacht.
The amounts involved in Najib's first case are small compared to those in his second and most significant trial, which centres on allegations he illicitly obtained more than US$500 million.
If Najib - currently free on bail - is convicted on Jul 28, he could be sentenced on the same day. (Image: AFP/John Saeki)
US authorities, who are investigating the fund as money was allegedly laundered through the American financial system, believe US$4.5 billion was looted from 1MDB.
Malaysia had charged Goldman Sachs and a string of its current and former staff as the investment bank had helped arrange bond issues worth US$6.5 billion for 1MDB.
Prosecutors had claimed that large amounts were misappropriated during the fundraising.
But on Friday, Malaysia agreed to a US$3.9 billion settlement with Goldman in exchange for dropping all criminal proceedings against the Wall Street titan.
"He's a Singapore citizen. Our duty is to provide consular assistance to him, according to his needs," said Dr Balakrishnan, who was speaking to reporters at Woodlands Train Checkpoint after a meeting with Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein at the mid-point of the Causeway to discuss arrangements for cross-border travel between Singapore and Malaysia.
He added that he has no further information to share on the Dickson Yeo case, beyond what has been published. He did not comment when asked about actions that Singapore is taking to detect and prevent such espionage agents from operating locally and abroad.
Yeo Jun Wei, also called Dickson Yeo, pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington DC to one count of acting within the United States as an illegal foreign agent.
Court documents said that he used his political consultancy in the United States as a front to collect information for Chinese intelligence, targeting American military and government employees with security clearances on professional networking social media sites.
Yeo would pay them to write reports which he said were meant for clients in Asia, but which were in reality sent to the Chinese government without the writers' knowledge.
BANGKOK: When Kridchaya and Pimsirinuch decided to share their lives together and build a family of their own, marriage was not on their mind.
It was not because they did not want to wed. But the fact that they are both women bars them from having a legal relationship in Thailand, where same-sex couples are not recognised by the law.
“We didn’t think about having a legal partnership because it doesn’t exist,” said Kridchaya Tangtweetham, a business owner and mother of a three-month-old girl.
The couple spent five years trying to conceive and at least half a million baht (US$15,800) on assisted reproductive technology. The arrival of their child, from their perspective, has made the family complete.
Legally though, they are not equally protected by Thai law as heterosexual families. But this could change soon.
Thailand could become the first country in Southeast Asia to allow same-sex couples have a legal relationship. Its House of Representatives is set to review two legal proposals aimed at extending more rights to people within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) community.
One of them comes from the Move Forward Party, which proposed amending the marriage section of Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code to include the LGBTIQ group.
Currently, the law only permits marriage between males and females, who are legally recognised as husband and wife.
The party has proposed to amend the code so that couples of any sex can be recognised as spouses, filling the legal void that has deprived many same-sex couples of legal rights and protection.
“By amending the existing law on marriage, the rights afforded to opposite-sex couples will be extended. This will then allow people of any sex to marry. It’s the right solution, given that every citizen must use the same law and the same standard. This is equality,” said Tunyawaj Kamolwongwat, Member of Parliament from the Move Forward Party.
The other proposal is the Civil Partnership Bill prepared by the Ministry of Justice. It was endorsed by the Cabinet on Jul 8.
Unlike the proposed change to the existing law on marriage, this Bill creates a new legal term of “civil partners” to define same-sex couples registered under the Bill, and extends them certain rights enjoyed by husbands and wives.
For instance, civil partners can adopt children and have the power to act on behalf of one another in criminal cases. They can also inherit in the absence of a will.
However, civil partners are not entitled to personal income tax exemptions given to opposite-sex couples, or access benefits of state employees they enjoy.
Some have hailed these developments as a step forward for the LGBTIQ community, while others are either against it or say that more still needs to be done.
GOVERNMENT SAYS BILL WILL STRENGTHEN FAMILIES, ACTIVISTS SAY IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH
The Civil Partnership Bill will now be reviewed by the House of Representatives, along with the amendments to the Civil and Commercial Code proposed by the Move Forward Party.
According to deputy government spokeswoman Ratchada Thanadirek, the Civil Partnership Bill could help strengthen families with gender diversity and promote human rights.
“As for other rights that are only available to opposite-sex couples, when the Bill comes into effect, it will be evaluated and developed to accommodate different contexts, including amending related laws,” she said in a press conference on Jul 8 after the cabinet endorsed the legal draft.
People walk past a reflection of the Pride Month logo projected on a giant screen after heavy rain in downtown Bangkok on Jun 17, 2020. (Photo: AFP/Mladen Antonov)
For some rights advocates, however, the government’s offer is not good enough.
“It’s like the LGBTIQ shouldn’t be given certain rights,” said Naiyana Supapueng from the Foundation for SOGI Rights and Justice, which advocates human rights in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity in Thailand.
For her, the use of “civil partners” instead of “married couple” is discriminatory and the fact that same-sex couples do not benefit from a set of rights afforded to heterosexual couples are unconstitutional.
She questioned, for instance, why Thai law only allows the husband or wife of civil servants to enjoy their spouse’ healthcare benefits and excludes same-sex partners when they are all citizens of Thailand.
“It means the LGBTIQ are second-class citizens when in fact, citizens should be equal before the law and receive the same protection,” Naiyana said.
“I think we mistakenly view gender diversity as an issue of marginalised people when it’s actually about all the citizens. We should realise that sexual orientation and gender identity is a human right. Every citizen should know we have liberty and freedom to choose how to live our life according to our sex or gender,” she added.
Asst Prof Ronnapoom Samakkeekarom from the Faculty of Public Health at the Thammasat University pointed out that there are two sides of the same coin.
On one hand, it is seen as a step forward to promote gender equality in Thailand, where the group has long fought for legal recognition.
“It’s a legal form of social innovation that could change public perception and promote gender equality among Thais. If you look at the legal outcome from an academic point of view, I think the bill could bring about change in the context of equality in the Thai society,” he said.
By recognising same-sex couples, he added, the law could change people’s mindset towards the LGBTIQ community and help create more social acceptance of the population.
Its outcome could lead to social change and set up a new standard for equality.
But on the other hand, the Bill has also been criticised for what appears to be discrimination against same-sex couples, by creating a new gender box to differentiate them from heterosexual couples and only granting them certain rights.
“By stipulating that people of the same sex can enter into a civil partnership, the Bill has created a new standard and a specific group. It gives rights as a charity, a supplement,” Ronnapoom said.
According to Ronnapoom, however, it is unfair to say law makers who drafted the civil partnership bill have no understanding of the LGBTIQ group. Rather, he said, it depends on from which point of view the Bill is analysed.
“Looking from the Ministry of Justice’s point of view, they know it would take a very long time to amend the Civil and Commercial Code because technocrats would come out to defend a main law of the country,” he told CNA.
On the contrary, the bill on civil partnership could take less time to come into effect and therefore serve same-sex couples more promptly by filling the legal void that bars them from officially founding a family, he added.
“There are people who are in trouble now, with no social resources to compensate for the lack of legal recognition,” Ronnapoom said.
These people with limited social resources are highly vulnerable.
RELIGIOUS GROUP AGAINST THE MOVE
Meanwhile, a religious group has voiced its opposition to the Civil Partnership Bill.
"The Bill goes against ethics and will greatly disgrace society. Thailand is a country that has long valued the importance of religious teachings and ethics, supporting good deeds that are based on religious principles to promote the family institution and its society,” the Muslim for Peace Foundation said in a statement on its Facebook page on Jul 9.
“This bill could cause social disintegration, destroy ethics, disregard religious teachings, and lead to a social crisis that may escalate to a point where it cannot be remedied,” it added.
The statement drew heavy online criticisms and was later withdrawn.
Participants rally to advocate gay rights in Bangkok on Nov 29, 2018. (File photo: AFP/Lillian SUWANRUMPHA)
Ronnapoom noted that there is a general perception that the LGBTIQ community is well-accepted in Thailand, while in fact, their identities are simply tolerated as long as they do not infringe on the rights of heterosexual citizens.
Members of the LGBTIQ community have presence and roles in various sectors, from entertainment to education and politics.
“A cultural explanation would be that Thais are considerate – we think about others. This creates a cultural buffer that prevents them from confrontation. This buffer helps the Thai society coexist with the LGBTIQ group. But coexist doesn’t mean understand,” he told CNA.
A number of Thais still associate LGBTIQ with abnormality as their society hardly tries to create a better understanding of the group, he added.
“People just accept to coexist with them,” Ronnapoom said.
"HOW LONG SHOULD WE KEEP WAITING?"
The two proposals regarding legal partnership of same-sex couples may have attracted different views in Thailand. Still, many people see them as a result of the growing awareness of gender diversity and equality in Thailand.
Participants hold rainbow flags during a rally advocating gay rights in Bangkok on Nov 29, 2018. (File photo: AFP/Lillian SUWANRUMPHA)
For Kridchaya and Pimsirinuch, the Civil Partnership bill may not give them the same legal protections as heterosexual couples but it presents them with rights they never thought they would have.
For them, “civil partners” is simply a legal term created to promote gender diversity in a society where same-sex couples do not have any legal recognition – an option for couples like them who otherwise are legally non-existent.
“When you’re talking about gender diversity, the law should be diverse too,” Kridchaya said.
“It’s not that we’re totally satisfied but we’re aware that in practice, in reality, we can do it step by step instead of taking a leap,” Pimsirinuch added.
“What if the equal marital rights never happen? How long should we keep waiting for that?”
Dickson Yeo spent almost five years working at the behest of Chinese intelligence operatives to obtain valuable information from the United States.
He was recruited when, as a PhD student in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, he went on a trip to Beijing to give a presentation on South-east Asia politics, court documents showed.
After the presentation, he was approached and recruited by individuals who said they represented China-based think-tanks and offered him money in exchange for political reports and information.
Yeo came to understand that at least four of them were Chinese intelligence operatives, one of whom eventually asked him to sign a contract with China's People's Liberation Army.
Although Yeo refused to sign the contract, he continued to work for the Chinese operatives.
They told him that they wanted non-public information which they called "scuttlebutt", a slang term for rumours and gossip.
Their assignments focused on South-east Asia at first, but over time, shifted to focus on the US.
Over the next few years, Yeo met his Chinese handlers as many as 25 times in various locations across China.
Whenever he travelled to China for these meetings, he was regularly taken out of the Customs line and brought to a separate office for admission into the country, said the court documents.
When he brought this up with one of the operatives, he was told that they wanted to conceal his identity when he travelled into China.
FROM RECRUITED TO RECRUITER
Yeo's modus operandi was to trawl a professional networking website for people with resumes and job descriptions suggesting that they could have access to the sensitive information the Chinese were looking for.
After he contacted some potential targets, the website began to suggest additional potential contacts.
Yeo found the website's algorithm "relentless", checking almost every day to review the fresh batches of potential contacts.
He told US law enforcement officers it felt "almost like an addiction", said the court papers.
He looked out for susceptible individuals who were vulnerable to recruitment, and tried to avoid detection by the American authorities, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's counterintelligence assistant director, Mr Alan Kohler Jr, said in a statement.
Yeo was taught by his Chinese handlers to ask whether his targets were dissatisfied with work, were having financial troubles, or had children to support, for instance.
In one case, Yeo recruited a civilian working with the US Air Force on the F-35B fighter jet programme, who confided in him his financial troubles, and got information about the geopolitical implications of the Japanese purchasing F-35 aircraft from the US.
In another case, Yeo built a good rapport with an officer in the US army who had sent his resume to him in response to his fake job listings.
The officer said he was traumatised by his military tours in Afghanistan and wrote a report for Yeo on how the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan would impact China.
A third case involved a US State Department employee, who wrote a report about an unnamed individual who was at the time a member of the US Cabinet.
The State Department employee told Yeo he feared that his retirement pension would be jeopardised if officials found out that he provided information to Yeo.
Yeo paid US$1,000 (S$1,400) to US$2,000 each for the reports, and was given a bank card by his Chinese handlers to pay for them, said the court documents.
He was careful about his communications with the Chinese operatives and was instructed not to take his phone and notebooks when travelling to the US.
He was told not to communicate with them when in the US for fear that the US government would intercept their messages. When outside the US, he communicated with his Chinese handlers through the Chinese messaging application WeChat, and was told to use multiple phones and to change his WeChat account every time he did so.
Singapore reputation fears after citizen admits being Chinese spy in US South China Morning Post
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMidGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNjbXAuY29tL3dlZWstYXNpYS9wb2xpdGljcy9hcnRpY2xlLzMwOTQ3MDEvc2luZ2Fwb3JlLXJlcHV0YXRpb24tY29uY2VybnMtYWZ0ZXItanVuLXdlaS15ZW8tYWRtaXRzLWJlaW5n0gF0aHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuc2NtcC5jb20vd2Vlay1hc2lhL3BvbGl0aWNzL2FydGljbGUvMzA5NDcwMS9zaW5nYXBvcmUtcmVwdXRhdGlvbi1jb25jZXJucy1hZnRlci1qdW4td2VpLXllby1hZG1pdHMtYmVpbmc?oc=5
HOUSTON: Chinese staff departed China's Houston consulate to a jeering crowd on Friday (Jul 25) after the US government ordered the building closed, calling it a hub for spying on American companies and researchers.
About 100 protesters shouted "take back China", denounced the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and waved flags as consulate workers loaded belongings into rental trunks.
The five-storey building this week became the latest flashpoint between Beijing and Washington over trade, the coronavirus pandemic and military manoeuvres in Southeast Asia.
Shortly after the 4pm Central Time (5am, Singapore time) deadline to close the consulate, a group of people were seen by a Reuters journalist using power tools and a crowbar to force open the rear door. They declined to identify themselves to reporters.
After the men went inside, two uniformed members of the US State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security arrived to guard the door. They also did not respond to reporters.
The Chinese embassy in Washington and the US State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to a Reuters witness, consulate staff had exited the building shortly after 4pm and left in vehicles.
Among the protesters, Zhony Yi Ma, 34, travelled to Houston with a group from New York to heckle consulate staff. Police kept the crowd away from the building.
"We want to end the CCP, take back China and build a nation like America," he said.
Activists against the Chinese Communist Party protest outside of China's consulate in Houston, Texas, US, Jul 24, 2020. (Photo: REUTERS/Adrees Latif)
Other protesters included a group of supporters of the Falun Gong spiritual group, which is banned in China. Tao Peng, 48, stood silently holding banners calling for an end to communism.
A medical research scientist from Houston, she said the CCP infiltrates groups and cannot be trusted.
"I grew up in mainland China and have seen how the CCP lies," she said as a Falun Gong hired truck circled the area with "Freedom from Communism, and God Bless America" emblazoned on its sides.
Senior US officials said on Friday that the consulate was one of the worst offenders in terms of Chinese espionage in the United States and linked its staff to China's pursuit of a vaccine for the coronavirus.
Nhat Nguyen, 58, praised US President Donald Trump and accused Chinese communists of spying around the world. He wore a Trump 2020 campaign hat and waved the former flag of the South Vietnamese government that was backed by the United States against the communist North in the Vietnam War.
"The vaccine is the latest," he said. "They lie, they take," he said.
Consulate staff had duties in eight southern US states. The building closed for official business earlier in the week.
Houston is a major medical hub known for top-notch research on cancer, infectious diseases and since the pandemic hit this year, vaccines for the coronavirus, which first emerged in China late last year.
The city is also home to dozens of oil and gas producers that develop technologies used around the world.
