18 Friday International Friday, August 20, 2021 Scandal-plagued Malaysian party poised to win PM race King will pick next PM based on parliament support KUALA LUMPUR: A scandal-plagued be looking favorably to his appointment, and it Malaysian party looked set yesterday to regain will be an unelected appointment,” said Bridget the country’s leadership that it lost at landmark Welsh, a Malaysia expert from the University of elections three years ago, after the last prime Nottingham. “So you will see polarization con- minister resigned this week. Muhyiddin Yassin tinue.” Lawmakers supporting Ismail Sabri met quit Monday after a turbulent 17 months in office the king at the national palace to confirm their when allies withdrew support, and amid mount- support for him. An official announcement is ex- ing anger at his government’s handling of a pected Friday after a meeting of the country’s worsening coronavirus outbreak. With an elec- royals. UMNO was booted out of power after tion ruled out due to the pandemic, the king will becoming embroiled in myriad graft cases, no- pick the country’s next leader based on who tably the 1MDB scandal. commands majority support in parliament. Ismail Billions of dollars were looted from sover- Sabri Yaakob, who was deputy premier in eign wealth fund 1MDB in a fraud involving ex- Muhyiddin’s coalition, has received the backing leader Najib Razak, and spent on everything of most lawmakers, one of his supporters, MP from a super-yacht to pricey artwork. Najib Ahmad Maslan, said on Twitter. has been convicted and sentenced to 12 years The 61-year-old is a long-time member of in jail, although he remains free pending an ap- United Malays National Organization (UMNO), peal. Analysts have warned that UMNO re- and if his victory is confirmed it means the party gaining the premiership could have will reclaim the premiership. UMNO was the implications for Najib’s case, and for several lynchpin of a coalition that ruled Malaysia for six other MPs facing corruption charge. But KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin waves as he arrives at the National Palace in Kuala decades until losing power in 2018 amid a storm Muhyiddin, whose coalition is backing Ismail Lumpur, as he was expected to quit after just 17 months in office. —AFP of corruption scandals. The party had already Sabri, warned their support was conditional on regained a foothold in power as part of the coali- him picking cabinet ministers who “have in- tion that collapsed this week, but Muhyiddin tegrity... and are not facing criminal charges”. Anwar Ibrahim, looks set to lose out. Following ernment collapsed last year amid infighting, himself is from a different group. Meanwhile, the other main contender for the 2018 polls, a reformist alliance headed by paving the way for Muhyiddin to take power “People who voted for change in 2018 will not the premiership, long-time opposition leader Mahathir Mohamad took power. But that gov- without a vote. —AFP

Singapore YouTuber Sole surviving Khmer charged with sex offences Rouge leader denies after online claims role in genocide PHNOM PENH: The last surviving senior Khmer Rouge leader SINGAPORE: A Singapore YouTube star was charged yester- denied responsibility for genocide committed more than 40 day with offering teenage boys cash for sexual services, after years in Cambodia during his closing remarks yesterday to an facing misconduct allegations on social media. Dee Kosh gained international tribunal. Under the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge popularity for his shows, which are often just him chatting to the regime led by “Brother Number 1” Pol Pot, some two million camera or friends, and was also well known as a DJ at a local Cambodians died from overwork, starvation and mass execu- radio station. But last year social media users accused the 32- tions from 1975-1979. Khieu Samphan-one the secretive year-old of asking them for sexual favors and to send nude pic- regime’s few public faces-was sentenced in 2018 by a UN- tures in private messages, with some posting screenshots. The backed court to life in prison for genocide committed against YouTuber, real name Darryl Ian Koshy, faced seven charges ethnic-minority Vietnamese. But his lawyers have argued since when he appeared in court yesterday, local media reported. Monday in daylong appeal hearings that the tribunal had taken He allegedly offered boys aged 15 to 17 money in exchange a “selective approach” to witness testimony to convict him. for sexual favors, they said. He is also accused of making obscene “I categorically refuse the accusation that I had the intention films, and possessing obscene videos. Koshy, who has 367,000 to commit the crimes,” the 90-year-old said yesterday at the subscribers on YouTube, faces a lengthy jail term and hefty fines end of the hearings. “I have never committed them.” The three- PHNOM PENH: This photo shows ex-Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu if convicted. Police said they launched a probe after receiving year trial, which ended in 2017, included the testimony of more Samphan in the courtroom during his appeal against life imprisonment reports of a man allegedly offering money in exchange for sexual than 100 witnesses who described in chilling detail the abuses for his role in the genocide committed by the regime, at the ECCC. —AFP services. Police said they “take a tough stance against sexual and mass murders committed against Cham Muslims and ethnic crimes, particularly those that target vulnerable victims such as Vietnamese. Khieu Samphan claimed he was not part of the the young”. killing machine that exterminated nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s evacuation of Phnom Penh in April 1975, when Khmer Rouge He was placed on leave from the radio station after the inves- population rejecting in forceful closing statements the label of troops drove the population of the capital into rural labor camps. tigation began. In a statement posted on Instagram last year, “murderer”. Whatever the verdict to his appeal on genocide charges Koshy denied some of the allegations but admitted “some truth” But the court sentenced him to life in prison-alongside may be, Khieu Samphan said yesterday his fate was already in the accusations. He admitted that his text conversations with “Brother Number 2” Nuon Chea who died in 2019 — for geno- sealed. “No matter what you decide, I will die in prison,” he a 15-year-old were “problematic” and “inappropriate” but said cide and a litany of other crimes, including forced marriages and said. “I’m judged symbolically, rather than by my actual deeds there was no intent to groom the minor. —AFP rapes. The pair were previously handed life sentences by the as an individual.” The verdict for the appeal is expected to court in 2014 for crimes against humanity over the violent forced come in 2022. —AFP