Jan. 2
SINGAPORE:
Vietnamese developer detained in Singapore seeks passage to Germany
A Vietnamese property developer detained in Singapore is seeking passage to
Germany to avoid being sent back home, where he could face the death penalty
amid a crackdown on corruption, his lawyers said on Tuesday.
Phan Van Anh Vu, 42, who is wanted in Vietnam for revealing state secrets,
according to media, was detained in Singapore on Thursday as he tried to leave
for Malaysia, said Remy Choo, one of at least three lawyers engaged by Vu's
family to represent him.
Choo and another lawyer in Singapore, Foo Chow Ming, said they had been unable
to contact Vu, and on Tuesday filed an application in Singapore's High Court to
try to gain access to their client.
A 3rd lawyer told Reuters he had filed an application to German authorities to
allow him to go there.
"I have made an application for Germany to accept him," said Victor Pfaff, a
lawyer in Frankfurt.
Germany's foreign office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Singapore has no extradition treaty with Vietnam, but its immigration authority
has the power to repatriate people under certain circumstances, according to
the city-state's Immigration Act.
"My client's family is concerned there is an imminent risk of repatriation to
Vietnam," said Choo.
Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security said last month it was seeking the arrest
of Vu, a developer in the communist state's central city of Danang, where the
local leadership was shaken up after corruption accusations last year.
Vietnamese media quoted police as saying Vu was wanted for revealing state
secrets. They did not say what these related to or whether that was linked to
his role as a property developer.
Singapore's Immigration and Checkpoints Authority and its Ministry of Home
Affairs did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Vietnam's foreign ministry also did not respond immediately to a request for
comment on Vu's detention in Singapore and whether Hanoi had sought his
extradition.
Serious security offences, such as revealing state secrets, can carry the death
penalty in Vietnam. Singapore also has the death penalty for some crimes.
Singapore has close diplomatic and trade ties to Vietnam. This year, Singapore
is also chairing the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations grouping,
which has sought to strengthen regional cooperation.
Dozens of Vietnamese officials and business figures have been arrested in a
crackdown on corruption that has gathered pace since the security establishment
gained greater sway in the ruling Communist Party in 2016.
The crackdown grabbed world headlines last year when Germany accused Vietnam of
kidnapping a former oil executive to return him home to face trial.
(source: Reuters)
BANGLADESH:
Prosecutors seek death for Zia's son in grenade attack case
The prosecution Monday demanded death penalty for the opposition Bangladesh
Nationalist Party leader Khaleda Zia's son for his alleged role in the 2004
grenade attack that killed 24 people and injured 300 others, including Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina, a media report said.
Tarique Rahman, the BNP's senior vice president who lives in exile in London,
is accused in 2 cases of murder and blasts for planning the attack in which
more than 10 grenades were thrown in a rally organised by Hasina's Awami League
party when she was in opposition and Zia was in power.
Among the dead was Ivy Rahman - the wife of late president Zillur Rahman and
then Mohila AL president.
Chief prosecutor Syed Rezaur Rahman demanded death sentences for Rahman and 48
others, including the then-home minister Lutfozzaman Babar and chiefs of major
intelligence agencies while wrapping up the argument at a Speedy Trial Tribunal
here, the Daily Star reported.
The state counsel had submitted arguments after observing testimonies from 245
witnesses on December 27. The court had fixed January 1 for the defence and the
state to present their arguments.
Justice Shahed Nuruddin adjourned the case till tomorrow when the defence, led
by state-appointed lawyer Chitanya Chandra Halder, would present their
argument, the report said.
There were 52 accused in the case of which 23, including Babar and BNP leader
Abdus Salam Pintu, are behind the bars.
Former Inspector Generals of Police (IGPs) Ashraful Huda, Sahudul Haq and Khoda
Boksh Chowdhury, Lt Commander (retd) Saiful Islam Duke, former investigation
officers Special Superintendent Ruhul Amin and Senior ASP Munshi Atikur Rahman
and ASP Abdur Rashid were among the 8 who are out on bail.
While 18 other accused, including Rahman, BNP leader Harish Chaudhary, former
lawmaker Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad, Major General (retd) A T M Amin,
and Lieutenant Colonel (retd) Saiful Islam Joarder are still absconding.
Apart from these, 3 accused - Jamaat leaders Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, Mufti
Hannan and his associate Sharif Saidul Alam Bipul - have been executed after
being convicted in the war crimes and grenade attack cases.
(source: outlookindia.com)
EGYPT----executions
Egypt hangs 4 convicted of deadly 2014 bomb attack
Egypt has hanged 4 men convicted by a military court of killing 3 military
students in a bombing in 2014, security sources said on Tuesday.
It was the 2nd reported multiple execution of convicted Islamist militants in a
week. A week ago Egypt hanged 15 men accused of deadly attacks in the Sinai
peninsula, believed to be the largest number of people executed in a single day
since President Abdel Fateh al-Sisi took power.
The latest executions were carried out in the Borg al-Arab prison, west of the
coastal city of Alexandria, after the military appeals court rejected appeals
by the defendants, the sources said.
The 4 were hanged for their role in a bombing in the Nile Delta town of Kafr
al-Sheikh that took place during violence that followed the ouster of President
Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Sisi, then the military chief, removed
Mursi in mid-2013 after mass protests against Mursi's rule.
The court also sentenced 3 others in absentia to death, and jailed 8 others,
including Salah al-Feki, head of the Muslim Brotherhood's administrative office
in Kafr al-Sheikh.
Authorities banned the Brotherhood and declared it a terrorist organization
after Mursi was deposed, arresting thousands of its members and supporters.
Since then, Egypt has faced a growing insurgency from Islamic State fighters in
the Sinai Peninsula.
(soruce: Reuters)
IRAN:
Ayatollah accuses Iran's enemies over deadly protests
Iran's Supreme Leader has accused his country's enemies of meddling in recent
protest rallies, as the reported death toll reached 20.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's website quoted him as saying enemies of Iran have used
various means including money, weapons, politics and intelligence apparatuses
"to create problems for the Islamic system".
The Iranian leader, who has final say on all state matters, did not name any
country but said he would explain more in the near future.
This is the 1st time he has commented publicly since protests over inflation
and economic corruption began on Thursday in Mashhad and spread to other
cities.
More than 20 people, including protesters and security forces, have reportedly
died in clashes and hundreds have been arrested.
Overnight clashes between protesters and security forces killed 9 people, state
television reported, including some rioters who tried to storm a police station
to steal weapons.
The demonstrations, the largest to strike Iran since its disputed 2009
presidential election, have seen 6 days of unrest across the country.
Hundreds of people have been arrested and a prominent judge on Tuesday warned
that some could face death penalty trials.
State TV reported that 6 people were killed during an attack on a police
station in the town of Qahdarijan. The report said clashes were sparked by
rioters who tried to steal guns from the police station.
State TV also said an 11-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man were killed in the
town of Khomeinishahr, while a member of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary
Guard was killed in the town of Najafabad.
It said all three were shot with hunting rifles, which are common in the
Iranian countryside.
The towns are all in Iran's central Isfahan province, 215 miles south of
Tehran.
It was not immediately clear if the Revolutionary Guard member was the one
reported late on Monday night by Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency.
Mehr had said an assailant using a hunting rifle killed a policeman and wounded
3 others in Najafabad.
Monday night saw the 1st fatality among Iran's security forces.
President Hassan Rouhani has acknowledged the public's anger over the Islamic
Republic's flagging economy, though he and others warned that the government
would not hesitate to crack down on those it considers law breakers.
None of the protest rallies have received permission from the Interior
Ministry, making them illegal under Iranian law.
In Tehran alone, 450 protesters have been arrested in the last 3 days, the
semi-official ILNA news agency reported on Tuesday. ILNA quoted Ali Asghar
Nasserbakht, a security deputy governor of Tehran, as saying security forces
arrested 200 protesters on Saturday, 150 on Sunday and 100 on Monday. So far,
authorities have not released a nationwide figure for arrests.
The head of Tehran's Revolutionary Court reportedly warned on Tuesday that
arrested protesters could potentially face death penalty cases when they come
to trial.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Mousa Ghazanfarabadi as saying:
"Obviously one of their charges can be Moharebeh", or waging war against God,
which is a death penalty offence in Iran.
Mr Ghazanfarabadi also was quoted as saying some protesters will come to trial
soon on charges of acting against national security and damaging public
properties.
The protests began over Iran's economy, which has improved since the nuclear
deal that saw Tehran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for
the end of some international sanctions.
Tehran now sells its oil on the global market and has signed deals to purchase
tens of billions of pounds of Western aircraft.
That improvement has not reached the average Iranian. Unemployment remains
high, and official inflation has crept up to 10% again.
(source: Associated Press)
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