Asian Legal Review

A Japanese man who fathered at least 15 babies using Thai surrogate mothers appeared in a Thai court via video conference Tuesday, testifying in a case in which he is suing for paternal rights.
Mitsutoki Shigeta’s lawyer said that Bangkok’s Central Juvenile Court, where the “baby factory” case that has drawn wide attention is being heard, will issue its ruling on February 20.
Shigeta, the reputed son of a billionaire, was living in Hong Kong when news of his unusual…

Personal pension providers should be ready for potential action from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) if a review uncovers competition, charging and value for money issues, experts have warned.

Thailand’s former national police chief has acknowledged he borrowed US$9.5 million from a brothel owner who is wanted on human trafficking charges.
Former police commissioner Somyot Pumpanmuang told reporters the brothel owner, Kampol Wirathepsuporn, has been his friend for more than 20 years, but he was unaware of where the money came from. Somyot’s remarks on Monday were widely reported in the Thai media on Tuesday.
Police since January have cracked down on several Bangkok…

Maldives Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and another Supreme Court judge were arrested at dawn on Tuesday, hours after President Abdulla Yameen declared a state of emergency, police said.
Justices Saeed and Ali Hameed were arrested along with the court’s top administrator Hassan Saeed after security forces stormed the court complex in Male, with police citing complaints of corruption against them in a brief statement.
The high profile arrests followed the arrest on Monday of ex-president…

The UK’s forthcoming exit from the EU will enable the country to adopt a “more innovative and responsive” approach to the way in which competition law is enforced and mergers regulated, a UK parliamentary committee has said.

A leading American investigator into the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade has been found stabbed to death in his home, Kenyan police and officials said on Monday.
A family member went to Esmond Bradley Martin’s house on Sunday to check on him after he did not respond to phone calls and found the body on a bed with a stab wound to the neck, said Nicolas Kamwende, head of criminal investigations in the capital, Nairobi.
“A passionate and committed man who made a big difference to…

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed on Monday the victory of a ruling party-backed candidate in a mayoral election on Okinawa, vowing to press ahead with a controversial plan to move a US Marines airbase on the southern island.
The candidate, Taketoyo Toguchi, backed by Abe’s ruling coalition, defeated incumbent Susumu Inamine, who opposed moving the US Marines’ Futenma airbase to his city of Nago in Okinawa’s north from a more populous part of the island.
The victory…

Airbus and Boeing have never had it so good in Asia.
The rapid growth of mainland Chinese carriers and the entry of many budget operators has meant billions of dollars in orders for the aircraft makers. At the Singapore Airshow starting on Monday, top officials from Airbus SE Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders to Boeing’s vice-president of marketing Randy Tinseth are due to outline their plans to capture that boom.
“There’s a huge market there,” said Rahul Kapoor, an…

Amid Indonesia’s latest bout of moral panic, that has seen its transgendered citizens rounded up by police and politicians calling for outright bans on sex outside marriage, there are signs that cooler heads may prevail – if only slightly.
The ranking member of a parliamentary committee, charged with overhauling the country’s voluminous criminal code, said most politicians were eager to avoid language that would make extramarital sex illegal. The provision is thought…

Myanmar officials have denied a report of five mass graves of Rohingya in a village in crisis-hit Rakhine, a border region gutted by a military crackdown on the Muslim minority.
Myanmar troops are accused of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya, nearly 700,000 of whom have fled to Bangladesh since last August.
Myanmar denies the allegation, saying it launched a proportionate crackdown on Rohingya rebels, but has blocked reporters and UN investigators from independently…