Saturday, January 28, 2012

The drug mule get hang, the drug lord just get some detention

The Chinese Lianhe Zaobao has repeatedly trump our English MSM in reporting. There is new progress on the case of drug mule Yong Vui Kong, and to the time of my writing, are reported online only with Lianhe Zaobao and TOC.

命悬一线、在等待总统特赦结果的毒犯杨伟光,提出刑事动议指总检察长控他死刑罪,却只是拘留主谋,对他不公平,有违宪法。

马来西亚毒犯杨伟光(24岁)于2007年6月在本地贩运约47.27克海洛英,被定死罪。

他经过了上诉和数次诉诸司法途径都无法改变上绞刑台的命运,如今正等待总统特赦的结果。

昨天,他通过M拉维律师提出刑事动议,指总检察长不平等地对待他和指使他贩毒的老板谢俊龙(译音)。他认为控方歧视他,违反了宪法第12(1)节条文——在法律面前,人人平等,面对同样情况的人应该平等享有法律的保护。

杨伟光因此要求最高法院上诉庭撤销他的罪名,把案件交回总检察长来决定是否要提控他和谢俊龙同样的罪状。或者,修改他的罪状,撤销他的死刑,改判他非死刑的刑罚,让他和谢俊龙所受的对待没有差别。

至于杨伟光,他声称他只是个跑腿,罪责较轻,却被控死刑罪;反之他的老板罪责较重,只是被控方以刑事法(临时条款)(Criminal Law, Temporary Provisions)拘留。
......
根据法庭文件,谢俊龙原本被控,但控方之后撤销罪状,改而拘留他。杨伟光认为,总检察长既然因证据不足而无法提控谢俊龙

Yong Vui Kong is facing the gallows and awaiting presidential clemency, and meanwhile a criminal motion was filed against AG, for violation of constitution in fairness, in prosecuting him with death sentence while merely detaining "his boss"

Malaysian drug trafficker Yong Vui Kong (24) was sentenced to death for 47.27g of Heroin.

He failed appealing through legal channel few times and is now waiting for the result of presidential clemency.

Yesterday, he filed through lawyer Ravi Menon, accusing AG of unfair treatment of himself versus boss Chia Choon Leng. He perceives discrimination of AG and its contravention of constitution 12(1), "before the law, everyone are equal". Yong wants Court of Appeal of Supreme court to get rid of his charges, and to throw it back, for AG to decide whether to charge Yong with the same thing as his boss.

Or to change the charges, stop prosecuting for death sentence, to prosecute under non-capital punishment in the same way as his boss Chia received.

Yong claims that he is just a runner, but he got death for lighter felony. The more culpable boss merely got himself lock up under Criminal Law, Temporary Provisions.

Chia was charged previously, but charges against him was dropped for lack of evidence.


Is it so difficult to prosecute drug lord?
First we look at another scenario. There is a conspiracy of intellects and governments to feed public with bullshit that corruptions are extremely difficult to prosecute and to prove.

Nothing can be further from truth. Corruption is the easiest crime to prove and yet it is so rampant and no one get convicted except until the old quo is being replaced by new one. It is easy to steal $1-2 but to embezzle millions, you would leave trails of accountants, private bankers, large amount of bank accounts transactions...etc

These are the easiest things to track down.

Similarly, a drug lord will leave trails of money laundering that involve a squadron of accountants, financial advisors, and dubious transactions, which cannot be explained. He will have a lackies of bouncers, runners which could provide pieces of jigsaw puzzle to unravel the criminal empire.

Persecuting drug lord threatens the status quo
Put it this way, a significant portion of powerful people in the society have connections in organized crime. There are less such people in Singapore, but many Hong Kong and Taiwan tycoons like Stanley Ho, Henry Fok...etc are well-known to be involved in criminal activities.

And even more people, have dealings and business interest with these mafia bosses.

Hence, the game is such that, the investigations and prosecutions must not target anyone higher than the field soldiers. It is extremely easy to trace up drug lords by investigating the chain of command when one drug mule is captured. However, this is never done throughout the whole world.

The exceptions are when certain drug lord severely injured the interest of large number of elites, examples are those Colombia cocaine bosses. Or when government want to place some control on increasing unruly and ostentious mafia including Al Capone. For the later, the anti organized crime campaign is often short in duration and target only one or two arrogant mafia bosses who have made too much enemies. The rest are unmolested. These campaigns are just for public showcase.

Below is what Australian a newspaper wrote about Singapore connections with drug lords.

Both the Burmese generals and drug lords have been able to take advantage of Singapore's liberal banking laws and money laundering opportunities. In 1991, for example, the SLORC laundered US$400 million through a Singapore bank which it used as a down payment for Chinese arms. With no laws to prevent money laundering, Singapore is widely reported to be a financial haven for Burma's elite, including its two most notorious traffickers, Lo Hsing Han and Khun Sa (also known by his Chinese name Chang Qifu).

Lo Hsing Han is chairman of Burma's biggest conglomerate, Asia World, founded in 1992. His son, Steven Law, is managing director and also runs three companies in Singapore which are "overseas branches" of Asia World. Although Singapore is proud of its mandatory death penalty for small-time narcotics smugglers and heroin addicts, both father and son travel freely in and out of the friendly (to them) island-nation.

In 1996, when Law married his Singaporean business partner in a lavish, well-publicized Rangoon wedding, guests from Singapore were flown in on two chartered planes. According to a high-level US government official familiar with the situation, Law's wife Cecilia Ng operates an underground banking system, and "is a contact for people in Burma to get their drug money into Singapore, because she has a connection to the government." According to the official, Ng spends half her time in Rangoon, half in Singapore; when in Rangoon, she is headquartered at Asia Lite, a subsidiary of Asia World.

The husband-wife team are also the sole officers and shareholders of Asia World subsidiary, Kokang Singapore Pte Ltd. Founded in Singapore in 1993 with $4.6 million, the company "engages in general trading activities in goods/products of all kinds/descriptions.


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