INTERNATIONAL TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2015 Hong Kong tycoon Kwok’s plea for bail rejected

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong court rejected property lion) given to former city deputy leader Rafael Hui. Yeung Chun-kuen. The court bars publication of any and ears” in government for Sun Hung Kai, while he tycoon Thomas Kwok’s plea for bail yesterday as he The high-profile case shocked the city and deep- detail on the reasoning for the ruling. enjoyed an extravagant standard of living. appeals a five-year prison sentence for bribing a senior ened anger over cosy ties between officialdom and big Hui, the city’s former Chief Secretary for Hong Kong is seen as relatively corruption-free-it official in a corruption case which shocked the city. business. Administration, was jailed for seven and a half years on a was ranked the joint 15th cleanest country or territory in The 63-year-old, who was the joint chairman of Kwok, who is serving his sentence at the city’s maxi- total of five graft charges, making him the highest-rank- 2013 by watchdog Transparency International. But the Hong Kong’s biggest property company Sun Hung Kai, mum security Stanley Prison, has appealed the ruling ing official in the city’s history to be found guilty of tak- case fuelled anger at what locals call “collusion” between was jailed in December after he was found guilty of con- and asked the court to grant him bail as he awaits the ing bribes. government and businesses, with many young Hong spiracy to commit misconduct in a public office over a outcome. During a seven-month jury trial leading to the con- Kongers struggling with a lack of opportunity amid series of payments totalling HK$8.5 million (US$1.1 mil- But his plea was rejected by appeals court judge viction, the prosecution said Hui was made the “eyes soaring property prices and stagnant wages. — AFP Police arrest Anwar’s daughter for sedition Move intended to silence opposition: Fahmi

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police arrested the dominance. Anwar and his three-member opposi- Human Rights Watch slammed Nurul Izzah’s eldest daughter of jailed opposition leader Anwar tion alliance were seen as the most potent political arrest. “Prime Minister Najib needs to recognize Ibrahim for alleged sedition yesterday, a move threat to Prime Minister ’s ruling coali- that every sedition arrest of an opposition political slammed by critics as a clampdown on dissent. tion. Anwar led his alliance to unprecedented gains leader is another step towards the destruction of was detained to assist police in 2008 elections and made further inroads in 2013 rights-respecting democracy in Malaysia, and bring in their investigation of an opposition rally and also polls. Najib’s National Front coalition won with a this campaign of abuse to an end,” Phil Robertson, for making “contemptuous remarks that those in slimmer majority and lost the popular vote to the the group’s deputy Asia director, said in a state- the judiciary system had sold their souls to the dev- opposition. ment. — AP il,” national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement. A lawmaker and a vice president of her father’s People’s Justice Party, Nurul Izzah was detained JAKARTA: Switzerland’s Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter (L) shakes hands with his because of a speech she made last week in Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi (R) at the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry office Parliament, said Fahmi Fadzil, the party’s communi- in Jakarta yesterday. Marsudi and Burkhalter held a bilateral meeting to boost relations cations director. between the two countries. — AFP He said the arrest was “ridiculous and outra- geous,” noting that lawmakers have immunity over comments made in Parliament. Fahmi said the Myanmar’s student protesters move was intended to silence the opposition after Anwar was jailed for five years last month when he at odds with older activists lost a final appeal against a sodomy conviction. Anwar’s family said the arrest was “nothing short of intimidation and an abuse of power.” Nurul YANGON: Kyaw Min Yu’s first political rally was liners remained in positions of power and Izzah went to police voluntarily to give a statement almost his last. On March 16, 1988, he joined a could derail the reforms. about the opposition rally she participated in earli- group of Yangon students protesting against er this month, said her sister Nurul Nuha Anwar. the military junta which then ran Myanmar. DIFFERING OVER TACTICS They had reached a lakeside spot called White The differences with the groups in the for- Arrest is unconstitutional Bridge when police and soldiers attacked. mal opposition came to the fore when students “We maintain that the arrest of our sister is ille- By some accounts, nearly 100 students were continued to protest against the education law gal and unconstitutional. We deplore the glaring clubbed to death or drowned in what has even after the government accepted their selective persecution,” Nurul Nuha said in a family come to be known as the Red Bridge incident, demands for change. The students do not statement, calling for the release of her sister. the day 27 years ago when the White Bridge believe that parliament will enact the changes Khalid said she will be released once police turned red with blood. to legislation they say will stifle academic free- complete their interrogation. Anwar’s arrest was “Sometimes, I can still hear the sound of the dom. “We want to see the written agreement,” : This file picture taken on February 17, 2015 shows Nurul Izzah, the daughter of widely seen at home and abroad as politically police’s red wood sticks hitting students’ heads,” Lin Htet Naing said. Malaysian opposition leader , gesturing as she leaves after her father’s legal case motivated to eliminate any threats to the ruling said Kyaw Min Yu, who managed to escape and Suu Kyi’s advisers say she is frustrated stu- against Malaysia’s foreign minister at the Duta court complex in Kuala Lumpur. The eldest daughter coalition, whose popularity has been eroding since became one of the leaders of the famous anti- dents will not give the parliamentary process of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday she had been arrested for sedition after 2008 after more than five decades of unquestioned junta group, the 88 Generation Students. time to play out. “The students demanded reading out in parliament parts of a speech by her father criticizing his recent jailing. — AFP Students are again protesting in Myanmar results by a certain date,” Nyan Win, one of the and police have responded harshly. Kyaw Min top leaders at the NLD, told Reuters. “She told Yu, now 46, says he has regular contact with them that would be impossible. They don’t Four Thai the students and has given informal advice but understand the process of parliament.” Militant group leader he declined to give details. The 88 Generation, too, says the students activists to But it’s clear that some of the older genera- need to have faith in the reform. tion of activists, including democracy icon “They don’t trust the parliamentary process,” face court in captured in Philippines Aung San Suu Kyi, are at odds with the stu- Ko Ko Gyi, one of the 88 Generation’s top lead- dents over their tactics. ers, told Reuters. ‘landmark case’ MANILA: Philippine troops have captured the Marwan was the militant killed by the Filipino Suu Kyi now fights her battles in parliament “And it is true that parliament doesn’t repre- leader of a Muslim rebel group in the south who commandos but it added additional tests were as leader of the opposition and is engaged in a sent everybody. But they should celebrate BANGKOK: Four Thai activists are to has been linked to bombings and a beheading needed to confirm his death. fraught reform process with the semi-civilian what they have won. If we want any reform, we face military court yesterday on charges and accused of protecting two terror suspects Around that time, 42 elite policemen also government of President Thein Sein. The stu- need to establish the proper institutions to of violating junta orders banning public wanted by the United States, officials said yester- were killed in gunbattles with different Muslim dents have little faith the government is com- make laws.” gatherings in what a rights group called day. rebel groups in the far-flung region, the largest mitted to completing Myanmar’s transition to Suu Kyi returned to Myanmar just weeks a “landmark case” that could stir indig- Army and police forces arrested Mohammad single-day government combat loss in recent democracy. after the Red Bridge incident in 1988 and nation at strict military rule. The students still revere Suu Kyi and are became the icon of the movement to unseat The four men are members of a Ali Tambako and five of his men late Sunday memory. That prompted the military last month reluctant to criticise her. But their isolation from the military regime. She was awarded the group called Resistant Citizen, which while the militants were traveling in a motorcy- to launch an offensive that has killed about 100 the reform process they worry is going Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. has held demonstrations around the cle sidecar taxi to a seaport in southern General suspected insurgents and led to the capture of nowhere is likely to push them to take to the Despite being banned under the constitu- Thai capital in defiance of the military Santos city. Three grenades and two guns were Tambako. streets again and radicalise Myanmar’s politics. tion from becoming president, she remains government which came to power after seized from the militants, who did not put up a Tambako’s former armed group, the hardline “I never believed in this reform process,” said committed to reforms through a managed a coup in May. fight, according to a police report. Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, Lin Htet Naing, one of the leaders of the All process. Her party, the NLD, will contest an “It is a landmark case. Hundreds Tambako, who formed the group Justice for expelled him last year after his men beheaded a Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABSFU). election later this year regardless of whether or have been sent to military court since “We students always said the government not she can be president. the coup but this case is an outright Islamic Movement with about 70 armed fight- farmer in an attack on a Christian community in was lying. The same people control the wealth But the links between revolution and stu- persecution of peaceful expression of ers last year, has been suspected by the mili- the south. That prompted him to form his own and operate the system as under military rule. dent protesters is part of the country’s history. dissent,” said Sunai Phasuk of Human tary of giving refuge in his southern strong- rebel band, which has been linked to several They just changed uniform. “ Suu Kyi’s father, independence hero Aung Rights Watch. hold to top Malaysian terror suspect Zulkifli deadly bombings and attacks, including the After 49 years of military rule, Thein Sein’s San, was a student leader when he began The four are Arnon Numpa, 30, a bin Hir, also known as Marwan, and long- clashes with police commandos, military officials semi-civilian government took power in 2011 opposing the British colonial government. rights lawyer, Sirawith Seritiwat, 24, a and made wide-ranging and rapid reforms that The ABSFU traces its ancestry back to the wanted Filipino bombing suspect Abdul Basit said. student, Punsak Srithep, 48, an activist Usman. Insurgents involved in that skirmish were also initially inspired optimism Myanmar would students union initially founded by Aung San in whose son was killed in a 2010 army become fully democratic. But the reforms have 1935. Kyaw Min Yu sees many parallels crackdown on anti-government pro- The United States and the Philippines have from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the stalled. between his generation and the current crop of testers and Wannakiet Choosuwan, 36, offered huge rewards for the capture and prose- largest insurgent group in the south which Thein Sein and many of his cabinet col- students. a taxi driver. cution of Marwan and Usman. Marwan was signed a peace accord with the government last leagues are former generals. Serving officers “They are just like me, like I was,” he said in They held a pro-election demonstra- reportedly killed in a Jan. 25 raid by Filipino year. The Moro rebels said the clash was acciden- are guaranteed a quarter of the seats in parlia- an interview. “They are in their twenties, I was tion in February and set up mock voting police anti-terror commandos in the marshy tal because the police commandos did not coor- ment under a constitution written by the last about twenty then. They will be shocked and tables. Arnon also faces additional military government. nervous now, after their first experience of vio- heartland of the country’s south. The FBI said in dinate their anti-terror raid with their group as charges under a tough computer crime February that DNA analysis suggested that provided under a longstanding truce. — AP Last week, riot police used wooden batons lence.” laws for Facebook messages he posted. to forcibly disperse students protesting against For the students, despite the differences, Sunai said the case against them a new education law, arresting over 125 of Suu Kyi remains the model. “There is no other was a direct violation of their right to them. The crackdown in the town of Letpadan, leader,” said Lin Htet Naing said. “There is no freedom of assembly and it would likely near Yangon, was a reminder that some hard- other choice.” — Reuters stir disgruntlement with the military government. “The case is an important benchmark. Students have started to push back and are calling for a gather- ing at Thammasat University to oppose military courts.” Under martial law, which has been in place since May, gatherings of more than five people are banned. “All four of us will be sent to military court today and, if the military court accepts the case, then we will ask for bail,” Arnon told Reuters. Dozens of supporters showed up at a Bangkok police station where the four activists were interrogated, according to a Reuters reporter. Some handed the men red roses. Since taking power, the junta, known as the National Council for Peace and Order, has issued directives that have largely stifled dissent. It has said it has no immediate plans to lift martial law. Thailand has been divided for a decade by rivalry between populist for- mer Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the royalist and military establish- ment which seeks the self-exiled Thaksin as a threat to the status quo. The military seized power after BEIJING: In this July 14, 2004 photo, Xu Caihou, then member of the Secretariat of the months of at times violent protests Communist Party of China Central Committee and Director-general of General Political against a government led by Thaksin’s Department of the People’s Liberation Army, shakes hands with members of the paramili- sister, Yingluck Shinawatra. The military MANILA: Colleagues (in orange shirts) of Filipino extremist leader Mohammad Ali Tambako (not pic- tary force in Changchun in northeast China’s Jilin province. Former No. 2 military official government has promised to hold an tured) are escorted by police and military personnel after arriving at a military airbase in Manila Xu, who was under investigation for alleged massive bribe-taking, has died in a hospital election early next year. — Reuters yesterday, a day after they were arrested along with their leader Tambako in the southern island of of cancer. — AP Mindanao. — AFP