She may be quiet, but it appears Siti Aisyah is no longer innocent:
Siti Aisyah
For those who have met Siti Aisyah, the notion that the 25-year-old woman from Serang, Banten, might have been capable of allegedly taking part in a vicious plot to murder a high-profile figure in a foreign country is hard to swallow.
Siti, who is believed to have been arrested in Malaysia for her alleged role in the murder of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has been described by her neighbours and relatives as a “quiet and innocent” girl.
Siti once lived in a house located in a small alley in the densely populated quarters of Tambora district, West Jakarta. There she resided with her former husband Gunawan Hasyim and former father-in-law Liang Kiong, known as Akiong.
To her neighbours, Siti is just one of millions of Indonesians looking for job opportunities in neighbouring Malaysia.
“She rarely mingled with others. [But] I’m sure that it is her. I recognise her from the picture and I had seen her often back then,” said one of the neighbours named Anisa Fitri as quoted by Antara news agency. “She is a quiet and innocent person from the region,” she added.
Halimah, another neighbor who has lived in Tambora since 1969, was stunned by the news, saying that “[Siti] is poor; it’s a pity that she has been dragged into the case. She once lived next door to me before she moved [to her then father-in-law’s house],” she said. [The Star]
Here is the latest details about the women who apparently were duped into murdering Kim Jong-nam by a North Korean agent who allegedly was able to travel to South Korea:
Female suspects Doan (left) and Siti Aishah.
The two women suspected to have murdered North Korean Kim Jong-nam were allegedly “recruited” by a mysterious man to carry out the deadly task as early as three months ago.
According to a report by China Press, both Siti Aishah, 25, and Doan Thi Huong, 29, were not North Korean “special agents, but were possibly duped by a spy ring to commit the assassination.
Indonesian national Siti Aishah was arrested at 2am on Thursday, while Doan, who holds a Vietnamese passport, was arrested a day earlier.
China Press reported that the mystery man, believed to be a spy, got to know Doan about three months ago in Malaysia, who eventually became his escort.
The mystery man even took her on several overseas trips, including on one to Vietnam, where they visited her hometown and another trip to South Korea.
China Press reported the mystery man then introduced Doan to the four men still wanted by the police in connection with the killing.
It reported that the mystery man got to know Siti Aishah about a month ago, but only introduced the two women to each other recently when he told them about a “prank ” he wanted them to pull off.
The two women have claimed that they had no idea that it would lead to trouble as they thought it was only supposed to be a filming of the prank being carried out.
They apparently rehearsed the “spoof” many times and were able to carry out the process proficiently. [The Star]
The Grammy nominated British DJ Mark Lewis who arrested this past August for drug smuggling at Incheon International Airport ended up getting off with pretty much no punishment:
A Grammy-nominated British DJ was found guilty of smuggling drugs into South Korea last year. The Seoul Central District Court sentenced the DJ, 53, to a year in prison, suspended for two years. A Korean-American was fined 20 million won for buying and using the drugs.
The Briton was arrested at a customs checkpoint at Incheon International Airport last June. He had a 1.5-liter bottle of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), also known as the date-rape drug, in his baggage. The court said he smuggled GHB into the country four times — in January, March, April and June. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but Lewis admitted to smuggling GHB into the country four times, but the court said they took into consideration that he was not trying to profit from the drugs. So what was he doing with them? Using them to rape women? If he wasn’t the one using them to rape women then he was giving them to someone else to help them rape women.
If people in Korea want to go protest something, then go protest this.
Considering the mountain of lawyers that Lee Jae-yong is sure to have I hope the ROK prosecutors have some indisputable evidence if they have any hope of convicting him:
Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., enters the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul on Feb. 16, 2017, to attend a hearing on the legitimacy of his arrest sought for the second time by special prosecutors for alleged bribery involving impeached President Park Geun-hye and related to the merger of two of Samsung’s affiliates. (Yonhap)
Lee Jae-yong, Samsung Group’s de facto leader, was formally arrested Friday on charges of bribery in connection with a high-profile corruption scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye and her friend.
With the Seoul Central District Court issuing the arrest warrant, Lee, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., became the first leader of the country’s largest business group to be detained in a criminal probe.
The investigation team, led by Independent Counsel Park Young-soo, requested the writ for a second time on Tuesday — less than a month after its first request on Lee’s charges of bribery, embezzlement and perjury was turned down.
In their second pursuit of the warrant, the prosecutors leveled more charges against the tycoon, including hiding criminal proceeds and violating the law on transferring assets abroad in the process of giving bribes to the president’s friend Choi Soon-sil.
“The rationale for and the necessity of (Lee’s) arrest is acknowledged considering the new charges and additional evidence collected,” the court said in a text message sent to reporters.
The court, however, rejected the request for a warrant to arrest Samsung Electronics President Park Sang-jin, saying it is difficult to recognize the need for his detention.
Following the court’s decision, Lee is to stay at a detention center in Uiwang, south of Seoul, where he had been waiting for the ruling.
Prosecutors have suspected that Lee gave or promised some 43 billion won (US$36.3 million) worth of bribes to Choi in exchange for the government’s backing of a merger of two Samsung affiliates in 2015. [Yonhap]
Police have cleared two civilians over a man’s death during a citizens’ arrest.
The civilians, surnamed Kim and Kwon, saw the man carrying out a sexual act near a villa in Suwon on Aug. 13, 2016.
They chased the man and caught him after he collided with a power pole.
They subdued him and handed him to the police, but he died en route to the police station.
The man’s family sued Kim and Kwon in October after the National Forensic Agency found that the death was related to physical impact during the arrest.
But on Saturday, Suwon Nambu police sent the case to the prosecutor, saying there was no evidence for an indictment.
“The police investigated the death and the manslaughter suit against the civilians,” a police official said.
“However, the prosecution concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge the civilians with manslaughter and ordered the case to be designated ‘clear from suspicion’.” [Korea Times]
The Stars & Stripes has an update on the brutal murder of an Okinawa woman by a Kadena Air Base contract worker who happened to be a former Marine stationed on the island. The killer’s lawyer has given the Stars & Stripes transcripts of interviews with him in an effort to show the guy is mentally incompetent. These records show how brutal the murder of this young woman was and why this guy should never be let out of jail:
Rina Shimabukuro is seen in an image from a Fuji Television broadcast. Kenneth Franklin Gadson, a former Marine working as a civilian at Kaden Air Base, Okinawa, has been charged with murder and rape resulting in death in the slaying of the 20-year-old local woman.
A former U.S. base worker charged with raping and killing an Okinawan woman fantasized about raping women for years and thought about shooting fellow Marines as a way of attempting suicide, his lawyer said.
Former Marine Kenneth Franklin Gadson made the revelations, including gruesome details of the crime, during a jailhouse interview with his lawyers. The transcripts were released to Stars and Stripes under the condition that they not be released in their entirety.
Gadson, who worked at a Kadena Air Base cable and internet company and went by his Japanese wife’s surname of Shinzato, has been charged with murder, rape resulting in death and the illegal disposal of a body in the death of Rina Shimabukuro, 20, who disappeared April 28.
Gadson was interrogated two months later when police said he confessed to the crime. He then took police to her body in a heavily wooded area.
The crime shocked Japan and led to a surge in anti-American sentiment on Okinawa, home to about 30,000 U.S. troops. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but I don’t believe for a minute that this guy had no intention of killing her. For example he claims he just happened to have a shovel in his car to bury the body because he keeps it there for gardening purposes. Who keeps a shovel in their car for gardening?
This is a lot of money and a lot of people who were scammed:
Police arrested a group of people with hearing disabilities for allegedly pulling off a fraud scheme and snatching some 28 billion won ($24 million) from about 500 deaf people in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, on Thursday.
The Changwon Jungbu Police Precinct found that eight people with hearing disabilities allegedly told their victims from 2010 to 2016 that if they invested in a real estate development project to build apartments and factories, they would receive three to five times the amount of their investment within three months.
They also allegedly told victims that if the project proved successful, they would be granted expensive cars and pensions in return. Many of the victims borrowed money to make the investments.
These eight suspects, arrested for fraud and organized crime, and their roughly 500 alleged victims all belong to the same private online association of deaf people. Authorities found that the suspects and victims communicated via a group account on a mobile and internet app for non-public communications called Naver Band. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Here is the latest development in the horrible rape and murder case on Okinawa by a former Marine turned base contract worker:
Rina Shimabukuro is seen in an image from a Fuji Television broadcast. Kenneth Franklin Gadson, a former Marine working as a civilian at Kaden Air Base, Okinawa, has been charged with murder and rape resulting in death in the slaying of the 20-year-old local woman.
A former U.S. base worker will admit to a charge of rape leading to the death of a Japanese woman last year, a new development in the case that rocked the tiny island prefecture and led to a surge in anti-American sentiment.
Kenneth Franklin Gadson, a former Marine who worked as a civilian at a Kadena Air Base cable and internet company, said through his attorneys that he killed Rina Shimabukuro, 20, while attempting to rape her, according to Naha District Court documents filed Friday.
“We do not dispute the charge of rape resulting in death,” the documents said, adding that Gadson admits to striking Shimabukuro on the head from behind while attempting to rape her. “As a result, the victim died … The defendant had no murderous intent, therefore we dispute the charge of murder.”
Gadson, who also goes by his Japanese wife’s surname of Shinzato, has maintained that he did not actually rape Shimabukuro. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but it appears Gadson has some serious mental issues as well. The bottom line is whatever his intentions and mental state was, he murdered this woman and should be spending a long time in a Japanese jail because of it.
I believe anyone that makes a false rape allegation should face the same punishment as someone convicted of rape. The woman in this case since the sentence was suspended only has to do 120 hours of community service after making an allegation that could of sent the accused to jail and ruined his life:
A woman has been found guilty of falsely accusing a man of raping her.
On Monday, Ulsan District Court sentenced the woman to eight months’ jail, suspended for two years, and 120 hours of community service.
According to the court, the woman falsely accused a man of raping her when she was drunk last year.
But the court found that the woman had consented to having sexual intercourse.
When her boyfriend found out that she cheated on him, she falsely told police the man had raped her.
“Sexual crimes often have no objective evidence other than the statement of the victims,” the court said in a ruling statement.
“Therefore a false claim can greatly hinder the justice system and needs to be severely punished.” [Korea Times]
If President Duterte has his way the policemen who kidnapped, ransomed and killed a South Korean man in the Philippines will be executed:
Filipino police officers and other law enforcement officials take their oath during a Senate investigation of a kidnapped South Korean businessman that was allegedly killed by policemen at the police headquarters in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines Jan 26, 2017. Pic: AP
On Thursday, President Rodrigo Duterte apologised to South Korea for Jee’s death, saying he wanted to hang the rogue police allegedly responsible and send their heads to Seoul, Reuters reported.
He called again for the death penalty to be reinstated so that he could hang 20 criminals a day.
Duterte also promised the toughest punishment for those behind the kidnapping and killing of the businessman inside the national police headquarters in October.
The death of the South Korean comes as the Philippine police face growing criticism from rights groups and some lawmakers, who say cover-ups and abuses of police power are rampant. [Asian Correspondent]
