IN BRIEF Train bomber jailed for 30 years
Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor
C4
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2017
World ONSTAGE. David Fanning and Leah Turner perform during the Forget-Me-Not A Night Of Music For Alzheimer’s Awareness at 3rd & Lindsley on February 21 in Nashville. AFP
TAIPEI―A Taiwanese man was sentenced to 30 years in prison Wednesday for detonating a pipe bomb on a busy Taipei train that injured more than two dozen people last year. Lin Ying-chang, 56, was convicted on charges of attempted murder and making an explosive without a permit over the July 2016 blast, which the Taipei district court said was a botched suicide attempt. The explosion injured 24 people when it tore through the train as it pulled into a station. “The defendant detonated the explosive device with the goal of committing suicide, as well as taking his revenge on society by means of killing innocent people. His motive was malicious,” a court statement said. Lin, who has the right to appeal the ruling, was also injured in the blast. He told the court he had struggled to find a job after being diagnosed with cancer and had ended up living in his car. He said he had also become estranged from his family. But Lin believed that “society should be responsible for him”, the court statement said. The last major attack on Taipei’s public transit was when a college student killed four people in a stabbing spree in 2014 on the metro, shocking the island and prompting a security overhaul. AFP
Envoy wanted over Kim’s killing
K
UALA LUMPUR―Detectives probing the assassination of Kim Jong-Un’s half-brother want to question a North Korean diplomat, Malaysia’s top policeman said Wednesday.
Investigators have put five North Koreans in the frame for last week’s brazen killing of Kim Jong-Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport and have said they are seeking three
more for questioning. They include the embassy’s second secretary, Hyon Kwang Song, as well as a North Korean airline employee called Kim Uk Il, Khalid Abu Bakar
told reporters. “We have written to the ambassador to allow us to interview both of them. We hope that the Korean embassy will cooperate with us and allow us to interview them quickly. If not, we will compel them to come to us,” he said. Jong-Nam died on February 13 after being attacked as he waited for a plane to Macau. Leaked CCTV footage from the airport shows the chubby 45-year-old being approached by two women, one of whom grabs
him from behind and appears to shove a cloth in his face. Moments later Jong Nam is seen seeking help from airport staff, who direct him to a clinic, where he apparently slumped in a chair. Malaysian police say he suffered a seizure and died before he reached hospital, seemingly from the effects of a toxin. Seoul has said from the start that Pyongyang was behind the murder, citing a “standing order” from Jong-Un to kill his elder sib-
ling, and a failed assassination bid in 2012. Asked whether the five North Korean suspects had masterminded the attack, Khalid said he believed they were “heavily involved” in the murder. Four of the men fled the country on the day of the killing and returned to Pyongyang, he said, while one remains in custody in Malaysia. The police chief dismissed claims the two women had believed the attack was a made-for-
Charges against cadre are dismissed
N. Korea now more isolated KUALA LUMPUR―North Korea had few friends even before the assassination of the leader’s half-brother at a Kuala Lumpur airport last week, but the fallout from the killing looks set to further isolate the nuclear-armed state. Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur have enjoyed relatively warm economic ties, with some bilateral trade and citizens from both countries entitled to travel to the other under a unique reciprocal visa-free deal. Malaysia has also provided a channel between Pyongyang officials and the wider world, with Kuala Lumpur in recent years serving as a discreet meeting place for talks between the regime and the United States. But all that could come to an end following a war of words over Malaysia’s probe into the assassination of Kim Jong-Nam, which has seen Pyongyang’s envoy to Kuala Lumpur savage local police, and Malaysia recall its ambassador to the North. Singapore canceled its visafree arrangement with Pyongyang last year in protest over the regime’s fourth nuclear test. Andray Abrahamian of Choson Exchange, a non-profit that provides economic policy training to North Koreans, believes Malaysia could now make a similar move. “It wouldn’t surprise me. The arrangement is already absolutely unique. North Koreans don’t need a visa to work in Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos. But the Malaysian side is the unusual thing,” he told AFP. AFP
TV prank. “Of course they knew” it was a poison attack, Khalid said. “I think you have seen the video, right? The lady was moving away with her hands towards the bathroom. She was very aware that it was toxic and that she needed to wash her hands.” Khalid said Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong, 28, and Indonesian Siti Aishah, 25, had been trained to swab the man’s face, practicing in Kuala Lumpur before the assault at the airport. AFP
GUILD AWARDS. From left, actress Mamie Gummer and honoree Meryl Streep attend The 19th CDGA (Costume Designers Guild Awards) with Presenting Sponsor LACOSTE at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. AFP
20 months jail for ex-Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang HONG KONG―Former Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Wednesday after a high-profile corruption trial found him guilty of misconduct during his time at the helm of the city. Tsang, 72, who held the leadership post of chief executive for seven years from 2005, is the most senior city official ever to be convicted in a criminal trial and the highest ranking one to be put behind bars. The six-week trial at the High Court came as residents lose faith in Hong Kong’s leaders after a string of corruption cases fuel suspicions over the links between public officials and busi-
ness figures. Tsang was found guilty on Friday of failing to disclose his plans to lease a luxury flat from a major investor in a broadcaster, which was later granted a license from the government while he was leader. “Never in my judicial career have I seen a man fallen from so high,” judge Andrew Chan said in delivering the sentence. Tsang’s four decades of service to Hong Kong was “indisputable”, but his breach of trust was “significant”, Chan told the court packed with reporters and Tsang’s relatives. He “deliberately concealed” his dealing and negotiations, the
judge said. The former leader was photographed wearing a surgical face mask, his trademark bow tie and hand restraints as he was escorted to a prison van ahead of the hearing. He had been remanded in custody on Monday ahead of the sentencing but was hospitalized on the same night after he apparently had difficulty breathing. Tsang was acquitted on another misconduct charge which alleged he had failed to declare that an architect he proposed for a government award had been employed as an interior designer on the flat. However the jury failed to reach a verdict on a bribery
charge that alleged he had taken the redecoration and refurbishment of the apartment as a kickback. A retrial on that count was scheduled for September. Tsang’s family, including his two sons and wife, looked visibly upset as they exited the court house. “Today is a very dark day. My family and I feel very disappointed and sad regarding today’s decision by the court” his wife, Selina, arm-in-arm with her two sons, told reporters. “We will appeal,” she added. Tsang had previously said that he had “every confidence” he would be exonerated. AFP
PHNOM PENH―A UNbacked court on Wednesday dismissed a case against a former Khmer Rouge cadre charged with crimes against humanity, highlighting the difficulties of bringing lower level members of the brutal regime to justice. The Khmer Rouge dismantled modern society in Cambodia in their quest for an agrarian Marxist utopia, killing up to two million people. Only a handful of senior leaders have been jailed by the special court set up to deliver justice to the regime’s victims. But a string of recent cases had raised hopes of new convictions in a country where thousands of regime officials have never paid for their crimes. Mid-ranking cadre Im Chaem, a former district official, was among four Khmer Rouge members facing prosecution for charges including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Prosecutors and survivors accused her of being a key player in overseeing regime policies that led to the deaths of tens of thousands. But on Wednesday two judges—a Cambodian and a German national—threw out the prosecution against her, ruling the court did not have the remit to pursue lower level cadres. “Im Chaem is not subject to the (tribunal’s) personal jurisdiction, which means she was neither a senior leader nor otherwise one of the most responsible officials of the Khmer Rouge regime,” the court said in a statement. AFP