Asian Legal Review

A jailed Reuters reporter told a court in Myanmar on Monday that documents he is accused of breaking state secrets laws to obtain were planted by a police officer, who handed him papers he had not sought in order to entrap him. The officer had then lied to the court about what happened, he said.
Wa Lone, 32, who began giving evidence last week at the court in northern Yangon, also said under questioning by prosecutors that he had followed journalistic ethics in his reporting of a massacre of…

A prominent liberal South Korean politician embroiled in a corruption scandal has been found dead in a possible suicide.
South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates among developed countries. A string of high-profile figures, including a former president and business executives, have killed themselves in recent years.
Police say lawmaker Roh Hoe-chan of the small opposition Justice Party was found dead near a Seoul block of flats on Monday morning.
Yonhap news agency said Roh leapt to his…

Fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho has been actively involved in the affairs of his two Hong Kong-registered companies, even with Malaysian authorities in hot pursuit of him across several countries, the Post has learned.
Meanwhile, his business associate Seet Li Lin, said to be Singaporean, is living in Hong Kong and is connected to a Shanghai consulting firm owned by one of 37-year-old Low’s companies.
Jho Low, as he is widely known, is a key figure in an international money laundering…

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda stuck to the bank’s playbook on Saturday, declining to comment on reports that policy makers are considering measures to soften the side effects of their aggressive monetary easing campaign.
Remarks on the issue would not be appropriate given the proximity of the bank’s monetary policy meeting, Kuroda said, adding that policy decision will require sufficient discussion about prices and the state of the economy.
“I know absolutely nothing…

A Frenchman who served 18 years in custody for smuggling drugs into Bali was deported on Saturday in a case that sparked outrage in his native country over Indonesia’s tough narcotics laws.
Police arrested Michael Blanc on the day after Christmas in 1999 at the tropical island’s airport with 3.8kg of hashish hidden inside scuba diving canisters.
The now 45-year-old was originally given a life term – narrowly escaping the death sentence handed to some other foreign drug…

Australia and Britain are discussing plans for the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to be sent to the Pacific amid tensions over China’s militarisation in the South China Sea.
Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop discussed joint naval operations in the Pacific region with UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, during their visit this week.
In an effort to highlight the defence ties, Williamson and Payne visited BAe Systems shipyards on the…

In protest-averse Singapore, where civil society activists rejoice when their events draw more than 500 people, the annual Pink Dot gay pride rally has become a stand-out affair for its ever-swelling crowds.
Now in its 10th edition, this year’s rally to be held on Saturday afternoon is expected to once again pull in a crowd of more than 20,000 people comprising the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community as well as many of their straight…

Regulators in the UK and Ireland are understood to have begun discussions on cross-border arrangements that will allow UK investors to continue to access funds domiciled in Ireland once the UK leaves the EU, according to press reports.

Proposed changes to the law which would make it easier for leasehold homeowners in England to buy the freeholders of their properties have been published for consultation by the Law Commission.

A firm which manages money for a Libyan sovereign wealth fund has won a substantial case against its former chief executive for bribery and breaches of fiduciary duty.